Effectiveness of an online continuing education course in infant hearing health for primary care professionals

• Autor(a) principal: Araujo, Eliene Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Oliveira, Maria Taiany Duarte de, Alvarenga, Katia de Freitas, Costa, Krisia Thayná Lima da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/52269
• topic: Capacity building in service; virtual learning environment; neonatal screening; hearing; community health worker

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an online continuing education course on infant hearing health for primary care professionals. Design: A prospective longitudinal study with interrupted time series pre-test/post-test design. The effectiveness of the online course was assessed by comparing pre- vs. post-training performance and ana lysing responses to evaluations of the quality of the course. Study sample: The sample comprised individuals enrolled between September 2018 and August 2019 in a Ministry of Health course, “Actions in primary care for the early identification of hearing impairment” offered on the AVASUS platform. Results: Of the 2908 individuals registered, 1842 (63.3%) completed the course. Their ages ranged from 18 to 77 years, and 67.4% of them were females. Students and doctors were overrepresented among the enrollees. All Brazilian states were included in the sample. Comparisons of pre- and post-training perform ances showed a significant improvement in knowledge, and 99.3% of the participants provided positive comments regarding the quality of the course. Conclusions: The course is an effective distance learning tool on infant hearing health for primary care professionals. The online course circumvents the limitations posed by geographical barriers and also facili tates decentralisation.