Training of beauty salon professionals in disease prevention using interactive tele-education.

Background: Infectious diseases can be acquired in places where invasive procedures are often performed without the proper care of hand washing and material sterilization. There are approximately 500,000 beauty and esthetics centers in Brazil, which are visited by thousands of people every day. Many diseases, including sexually transmitted infections, are still highly prevalent in Brazil, such as warts caused by human papillomavirus, hepatitis B and C, and human immunodeficiency virus infection, and can be transmitted in beauty salons. 

Materials and Methods: We have developed a tele-education course divided into four main themes: sexually transmitted infections, indoor health in beauty salon workplaces, hand washing, and material sterilization. The course was made available through a Web site, which included a face-to-face meeting, Web synchronous meetings (chats and Web conferences), and asynchronous resources (reading material, discussion lists, situations simulator, educational videos, and three-dimensional virtual human video animation on sexually transmitted infections and hand washing), mediated by professors and coordinators. 

Results: Fifty-two beauty professionals and 33 other professionals were enrolled from different regions. Of the 61 who completed the course and received a certificate at the course’s end, 100% considered good to excellent the course’s applicability to everyday life and would recommend it to a fellow professional. 

Conclusions: The results demonstrate the feasibility of an interactive, tele-education model using low-cost tools as an educational resource to teach beauty professionals. In the future, this may become a branch of nationwide telehealth action.