Effect of implementing epilepsy educational guidelines on nurses’ performance and patients’ outcomes

Abstract

Objective: Epilepsy is considered one of the most common neurological diseases affecting 65 people worldwide. People with epilepsy are more likely to get injured and die prematurely than the general population. Nurses must acquire professional knowledge related to epilepsy and should strengthen patients to play a more active role in their care to improve their understanding of their diseases. The study aimed to evaluate implementing epilepsy educational guidelines on nurses’ performance and patients’ outcomes.
Methods: A quasi-experimental research design was conducted at the Neurology department in Mansoura University Hospital. This study sample is a convenient sample of 28 nurses and a purposive sample of 60 adult patients with epilepsy who attend the neurological department in Mansoura University Hospital.
Results: The results indicate a significant improvement in nurses’ knowledge and practice regarding epilepsy. Also, it helped to improve patients’ knowledge and thus promoted epilepsy self-management behaviors in the study group.
Conclusions: The designed nursing guidelines have achieved their objectives by improving nurses’ knowledge and practice regarding epileptic patient care, in addition to improving patients’ knowledge and epilepsy self-management scale for the study group compared with the control group.