RED EYE APPROACH IN PRIMARY CARE: AN UNDERGRADUTE STUDENT`S EXPERIENCE

Background: Only 15% of all cities in Brazil can rely in a specialized care by an Ophthalmologist; in the research field, the number are not promising either: only 1,5% of all research made in Ophthalmology in Brazil (2011-2012 period) addressed population and community matters. With that reality in mind, a last year medical student, under teacher`s supervision, decided to make a continuing education intervention with the theme: Red Eye Approach in Primary Care. Aim: Elaborate a manual of the theme: “red eye syndrome approach by the primary care physician”; promote a continuing education intervention in a primary health care unit about that theme. The final goal is to improve the ocular care of the assisted population. Methods: To elaborate the manual, there were used references such as text books and published articles specialized in Ophthalmology. For the continuing education intervention, we did a clinical session about the red eye approach, of one hour, with pre-test evaluation of the previous knowledge, and an after-test of acquired knowledge about the theme. Results: We offered for consult a manual about the red eye approach in primary care. In the continuing education intervention, we obtained 57% of correct answer in the pre-test knowledge evaluation, and 97% of correct answer in the after-test acquired knowledge evaluation. Conclusion: We believe that the continuing education project hit the goal of a better qualification of our physicians, giving them the tools to a sharpened approach of the red eye syndrome, improving the ocular care of the assisted population.