Evaluation of educational interventions and knowledge of the Nursing team in the use of electrosurgery.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of educational interventions on the Nursing team's knowledge and applicability of electrosurgery. Material and Method: A quasi-experiment, with pre- and post-tests in a single group developed in the operating room of a Brazilian tertiary-level university hospital. It was developed in seven stages, with the application of a semi-structured questionnaire to assess the participants' knowledge. The participants were exposed to two educational interventions (lecture, dialogue and video-lesson) and, after each intervention, they were evaluated for knowledge retention. Indicators of the application of the electrosurgery unit during surgical procedures were also evaluated. Results: Four nurses and 28 nursing technicians participated in the study. The nurses had prior knowledge of the theme on most of the topics. Among the nursing technicians, there was an improvement in the "equipment check" and "electrodispersive plate positioning" items. Conclusions: The professionals presented good theoretical performance but the same is not evidenced in the practice because they are reluctant to having a practice different from the theory. Research of this nature is timely because it provides managers with a possibility to propose projects for continuous improvement of perioperative assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]