NURSING CONSULTATION TO THE BLIND PERSON: EVALUATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE ON COMMUNICATION ACQUIRED THROUGH DISTANCE EDUCATION Evanira Rodrigues Maia 1 , Jaqueliny Rodrigues Soares Guimarães 1 , Lorita Marlena Freitag Pagliuca 2 1 Regional University of Cariri (URCA) (BRAZIL) 2 Federal University of Ceará (UFC) (BRAZIL) Abstract Communication is an essential tool for nursing care. However, scientific evidence points gaps in the knowledge of nurses in this area, especially regarding consultation for blind patients. In this perspective, information and communication technologies represent an innovative teaching-learning option to promote the acquisition of this knowledge and to guarantee the access to health services by the visually impaired. With financial support from the Researchers for the Unified Health System Program, the course entitled "Communication between nurses and blind patients" was created to train health professionals on the subject. The aim of this study was to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge about communication with blind patients through a distance education technology for primary care nurses. This study is a qualitative, evaluative, exploratory research with intentional, non-probabilistic sample of nurses from the Family Health Strategy of the CRAJUBAR Triangle- CE. Data collection took place between August and November 2015 through chats and boards conducted during the training process and were analyzed in the Alceste 4.10 software under the Theory of Social Representations. The analysis revealed six classes. The first one demonstrates positive expectations of the professionals regarding the applicability of the course in the daily care and exchange of experiences. The findings confirm DE as a facilitating strategy for the teaching-learning process. The second Class highlights nursing actions in the prevention of visual impairment in Primary Care. The third Class refers to the nurse/patient relationship in the communication practiced in the Nursing Consultation context. Communication appears as the basis for a qualified assistance generating a therapeutic relationship of trust, allowing the expression of fears, anguishes, values and meanings. The fourth Class reflects the individualization of nursing care to the needs of blind patients. Holistic and individual assistance should take into account the life history, intervening satisfactorily in its particularities. In the fifth Class, the use of verbal communication through writing or speaking is differentiated from non-verbal language. The nurses express the different levels of communication referring to the transmission of information through the voice, words, and body and facial expressions. In the sixth Class, the speeches reflect the characteristics of verbal communication through its functions and elements. The patients define them by demonstrating that it is possible to pass on information in different ways during the communication process. The effectiveness of the educational program for apprehension of knowledge on communication with blind patients in the short term was confirmed, which represents an opportunity a large-scale training of nursing professionals on the subject, besides guaranteeing the accessibility of communication for this population. Keywords: Nursing, Disabled Persons, Education, Distance. 1 INTRODUCTION The increase of populations with some type of sensory, physical and/or mental deficiency is a worldwide phenomenon. Statistics on the incidence and prevalence of disabilities are scarce due to the large diversity of forms of disability and the limited knowledge on their classification, records and registry in demographic studies (MAIA, 2011). Severe disabilities in Brazil present worrying indicators. In 2010, 8.3% of the population presented some disability. Visual impairment stands out with an incidence of 3.46%, of which 1.6% corresponds to blindness, followed by deafness (1.12%); severe motor impairment (2.33%), and mental or intellectual impairment (1.4%) (MARTINS et al., 2015; BEZERRA, SILVA, MAIA, 2015; CINTRA; SOUZA, 2012). Proceedings of EDULEARN17 Conference 3rd-5th July 2017, Barcelona, Spain ISBN: 978-84-697-3777-4 4856