Creation of virtual patients for midwifery education.

Objective: The objective of the study was to create several new, original virtual patients (VPs) in the Slovak language, especially for educational purposes in midwifery.

Setting: Virtual patients have been created for the needs of university midwifery education in Slovakia.

Model: The creation of the six virtual patients basically consisted of three fixed stages: preparation, design and development, implementation into the virtual environment.

Experience of lecturers with simulation training in midwifery education in Slovakia.

The simulation training in midwifery has a long tradition. It is aimed at acquiring basic and advanced practical skills such as performing a certain number of births, episiotomy and subsequent suture, assisting during breech birth etc. Midwifery education is currently based on the requirements of the Directives of the European Union exactly specifying number of performed practical procedures and approaches (World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe, 2009).