Nursing training program in children's hearing health: a proposal for interactive tele-education.

OBJECTIVE To verify the effectiveness of a nursing training program in the area of children's hearing health using interactive tele-education. METHODS Interrupted time series with non-random control group pre-test/ post-test. A cohort of 41 nurses, with no previous formal training in hearing health. A "Children's Hearing Health" Cybertutor was employed. The effectiveness of the nursing training was verified by comparing pre- versus post-training performance and by analyzing responses to an evaluation questionnaire. RESULTS Following training, the performance was significantly better in all domains assessed and in the total score. The evaluation questionnaire demonstrated that the Cybertutor was well accepted and the performance revealed in the pre-training phase demonstrated the need for children´s hearing health training. CONCLUSION The effectiveness of the nursing training program in the area of Children's Hearing Health using interactive tele-education could be proven, since there was an improvement in performance in all domains evaluated.