Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of distance education on primary care nurses' knowledge about bowel elimination ostomies.
METHODS
A quasi-experimental, before-after study conducted with 41 nurses, from June to July 2015, by means of an instrument constructed and validated in Brazil. The Wilcoxon’s test was used to compare the correct scores in the pre- and post-test. The results of the tests that presented α less than or equal to 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
RESULTS
In the evaluation of nurses' knowledge, five obtained correct answers above 80% in the pre-test. After distance education, the number of nurses that obtained scores greater than 80% increased to 32. There was a statistically significant difference in nurses' knowledge after an educational intervention (p=0.000), with a 96.7% overall improvement.
CONCLUSIONS
Distance education can be an effective strategy for nurses’ permanent education.
Keywords:
Ostomy. Primary health care. Education; distance. Education; continuing. Nursing