This abstract is the recipient of the Nurse and Advanced Practice Provider Abstract Award
Rationale: Patients admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) often require seizures to be captured on the electroencephalogram (EEG) to appropriately identify epilepsy syndromes. For the purpose of monitoring and collecting data, seizure-provoking methods are utilized, including withdrawal of anti-seizure medications (ASMs) and sleep deprivation. These measures can increase the frequency and severity of seizures and can increase the risks of injury and complications (Fahoum, Kipervasser, Bar-Adon, & Neufeld, 2016). Nursing education is necessary to address the concerns, provide optimal patient care and to maximize patient safety on the EMU.
Among nurses, how does a didactic educational intervention on intractable epilepsy compared to no educational intervention affect nursing knowledge?Neuroscience nurses working on the EMU at a Midwestern children’s hospital have posed questions regarding patient care related to intractable epilepsy and epilepsy surgery on the EMU regarding the frequency of seizures, determination of surgical candidacy, the need for surgical interventions, the basics of the various testing involved in the evaluation process, anti-seizure medications and rescue medications. Sentinel events on EMUs are relatively infrequent, however, there have been reported injuries and death among the population of electively admitted patients on EMUs (Dworetzky et al., 2015). Nursing education is key to ensuring nursing knowledge, competence and optimal patient outcomes.
Dworetzky, B. A., Peyre, S., Bubrick, E. J., Milligan, T. A., Yule, S. J., Doucette, H., & Pozner, C. N. (2015). Interprofessional simulation to improve safety in the epilepsy monitoring unit. Epilepsy & Behavior, 45, 229–233.
Fahoum, F., Omer, N., Kipervasser, S., Bar-Adon, T., & Neufeld, M. (2016). Safety in the epilepsy monitoring unit: A retrospective study of 524 consecutive admissions. Epilepsy & Behavior, 61, 162–167. Methods: A pretest and posttest design was appropriate to assess the impact of a specific intervention. The pretest and posttest assessed the nurses' knowledge, and confidence in providing care for patients on the EMU before and after the educational intervention. The educational modules included the current EMU procedures and protocols for care.
The director of the epilepsy surgery program and EMU AHP team reviewed the content of the modules prior to dissemination among neuroscience nurses. The author’s academic advisor, a certified nurse educator, reviewed each questionnaire to ensure test validity. Results: Thirty-seven nurses working in the neuroscience unit participated in the study. Each of the nurses’ assessment scored were recorded before and after each educational module. The posttest scores demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the scores. Evaluations demonstrated an increase in confidence and knowledge reported by nurses after completion of each module. There was a decrease in number of participants with each subsequent module during the initial phase, likely due to higher patient census, patient acuity and limited staffing during the times of the initial presentations of the three modules.
Conclusions: The pretest and post-test provided a quantitative measure of assessment of knowledge before and after the educational modules. The data collected indicated the educational modules significantly improved post-test scores. The educational modules demonstrated an increase in knowledge and confidence reported by nurses. Protected time to allow nurses to attend educational modules on dayshift and nightshift would provide nurses with the opportunity to embrace educational presentations and further improve their knowledge and confidence in the care they provide to patients on the EMU. Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: None Click here to view image/table
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