Educational Program for School Health Nurses and Teachers Regarding Primary School Children with Epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain that causes recurrent seizures. Effects people at all ages, but with higher rates at primary school age. Children with epilepsy face several social, cultural and learning problems, so that school health nurses and teachers have essential role to decrease these problems. Aim: Evaluate the educational program for school health nurses and teachers regarding primary school children with epilepsy. Design: A quasi experimental design was adopted. Setting: Governmental primary schools in Sammanoud City, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt. Sampling: Two samples were used: For school health nurses, all of them participated in the study, these were 21 school health nurses, and for teachers; simple random sample was used to select 249 teachers, with the following criteria: Direct contact with students in the class or during providing activities. Tools: An interviewing questionnaire which includes 4 parts, 1) Demographic characteristics, 2) School health nurses and teachers' knowledge about meaning of epilepsy, 3) School health nurses and teachers' attitude toward primary school children suffering from epilepsy, and 4) School health nurses and teachers' practice toward primary school children with epilepsy. Results: This study showed, highly statistically significant improvement of school health nurses and teachers' knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding epilepsy (4.23±1.23 to 5.14±1.08 and 1.49±1.07 to 4.57±1.46,) (6.91±1.60 to 10.68±2.06and 2.59±2.32to 9.26±2.21) (2.27±2.55 to 3.18±2.46 and 0.78±1.79 to 3.27±2.38) respectively post educational program implementation. Conclusion: Educational program improved the school health nurses and teachers' knowledge, attitude and practices regarding primary school children with epilepsy. The study results also showed a highly statistically significant and positive correlation between knowledge, attitude and practices of studied samples after educational program implementation. Recommendation: Dissemination of the educational program for school health nurses and teachers at all governmental and nongovernmental schools; Clarified booklet should be provided to school health nurses and teachers to deal them how to deal with children suffering from epilepsy; Training the school health nurses before work to determine how apply educational program for teachers to determine how to deal with children suffering from epilepsy during and after seizure.

The ECHO Was Heard Throughout the School

“…Epilepsy-focused education and training for school nurses have been shown to increase confidence in managing both epilepsy and acute seizure management. 2 - 4 The Epilepsy Foundation (EF) throughout the years has provided noninteractive online and in-person training opportunities to school nurses, although sometimes limited by resources such as mentors to offer education, awareness of the available educational opportunities, or the ability to interact and ask questions. To improve these gaps and increase access to care, the American Academy of Pediatrics in partnership with the EF’s National Epilepsy Education and Awareness Collaborative developed and implemented a telehealth and telementoring program for school nurses, called Managing Students with Seizures ECHO: The Importance of School Nurses (MSS ECHO) .…”