Aims: To evaluate and compare learning about venous ulcers and compression therapy among nurses with and without specialized training in stomatherapy, who attended the online course about venous ulcer whith focus on compression therapy1,2. Methods: This is an exploratory, quantitative and comparative study that approved by Research Ethics Committee. The sample consisted of 28 nurses who attended WOC nursing program in 2011 and 2013 (Group A); and 29 generalist nurses (Group B). All of them agreed to participate in the study and attended the online course. Demographic and professional data and an assessment tool about nurses´ learning were used for data collection. The assessment tool included 10 multiple choice questions, scoring one point each one; it was applied immediately before (pretest) and immediately after the online course (post-test). The data were analyzed by the McNemar3, chi-square4, ANOVA (F) and student's t tests.Results: Group A nurses obtained averages of 7.79 (SD=1.30) and 9.07 (SD=0.81) respectively in the pre and post-tests (p<0.001); for Group B, the averages were 6.39 (SD=1.49) and 8.49 (SD=1.32) respectively in the pre and post-tests (p<0.001). For Overall Group, there has also been progress in the average scores, from 7.08 (SD=1.56), in the pre-test, to 8.78 (SD=1.13), in the post-test (p<0.001).Discussion: After the completion of the course, both groups showed increased knowledge related to venous ulcers and compression therapy. Got making better use of the general nurses who attended a course of wounds previously. Conclusions: All nurses showed increased knowledge about venous ulcers and compression therapy immediately after the online course, higher among those without specialized WOC training but who attended short wound courses previously. The authors recommend nurses can be followed to investigate how they retain the acquired knowledge in a longer period of time.
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