Teaching and learning strategies in Home Enteral Nutritional Therapy: Knowledge gains perceived by caregivers

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate how different educational strategies contribute to knowledge gains perceived by caregivers of people using Enteral Nutritional Therapy. METHOD: a quasi-experimental study conducted in two stages: the first one included an interactive lecture class (LC) and the second was carried out in two groups: in-situ simulated skills training (ST) and reading of an educational booklet (EB). The caregivers answered a self-administered questionnaire to assess knowledge before and after the interventions; for the analysis, a generalized linear model with Poisson distribution was proposed and the comparisons were carried out using orthogonal contrasts. RESULTS: the participants were 30 caregivers; evidence of a difference in knowledge between the t(1)and t(0) moments is evidenced. The analysis of the final comparison about the knowledge gain between the EB and ST groups, according to Student’s t, evidenced an estimated difference of -1,33, with 95% CI (-4.98; 2.31) and p-value=0.46. CONCLUSION: knowledge was further increased between the t(1) and t(0) moments, when compared to the t(2) and t(1) moments in both groups. When compared, we cannot conclude that one of the groups changed more than the other in relation to moment t(0) and t(2); thus, the study evidenced the knowledge gain after all the educational strategies in both groups.