Educational action to monitor children's growth and development based on the theory of meaningful learning.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluating the effect of an educational program on the knowledge of Primary Health Care nurses regarding the surveillance of growth and development during childcare appointments.

METHOD: A before-after intervention study with 30 nurses. The nurses' knowledge and practice assessment were done using a tool that had been developed and validated. The educational activity was carried out, linking child growth and development indicators with public policies for early childhood and nurses' practices. David Ausubel's Significant Learning Theory was used as a teaching-learning strategy. The same instrument was reapplied after one month. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis and the proportion test, Wilcoxon test and Item Response Theory with the Rasch model were applied.

RESULTS: The nurses checked more items right in the instrument after the intervention; there was an increase in the scores of correct answers and a decrease in the item response difficulty index in the knowledge and practice section, post-intervention.

CONCLUSION: The educational activity had a positive effect, affecting changes in nurses' knowledge and practice, which enabled childcare consultations to become more qualified.