Abstracts

Rationale: Since aging is a risk factor for seizures and the fastest growing population of Americans are those 85 years of age and older, it is more important than ever that nurses have knowledge of seizures and its treatments. The use of pre-tests, although less often used in continuing education programs, are a useful tool to evaluate the learner's knowledge of the subject matter prior to receiving the education intervention. Analysis may or may not include trending the data to categorize the content area of the responses, calculating the mean and median, and completing an item analysis. Pre-tests are means in which to measure baseline knowledge of a subject and are used effectively to design additional continuing education on a particular subject matter. Methods: A sample size of 285 nurses who were members/past-members of the Southwest Texas Chapter of the National Gerontological Nursing Association (NGNA) or individuals on the chapter's e-mail distribution list, were invited to participate in an education program on "Treatments for Seizure Disorder in the Elderly". This program was published by the Delaware Media Group, Inc., in 2007 and was produced in print only. Permission was obtained to convert the content to a writable PDF version. A multiple choice, 10 question pre-test was sent out via e-mail, to potential responders, with instructions to complete the pre-test within seven days. Six were general questions related to seizure treatment guidelines and four of the questions pertained to specific AEDs and incidence. Results: Of the 285 e-mails successfully sent, 26% bounced back, 50% were click throughs, and 24.6% were opened. Of the 52 e-mail recipients who opened the e-mails, 9 registered nurses and 1 advanced practice nurse (19.6%) completed and submitted the pre-test within 72 hours. Of these 10 nurses, three met the minimum requirement(80%)to receive continuing nursing credit before completing the educational intervention. The range of scores was 40%-90%. The mean score was 59%, with a median of 50. The lowest scoring question (30%) addressed the evidence-based quidelines published by AAN and AES (2004). 100% of the nurses correctly understood that the best approach to AED treatment in the elderly was to initialize therapy at low doses and titrate more slowly than in younger patients. Conclusions: The baseline knowledge of ten nurses, who identify themselves as gerontological nurses, and who volunteered to participate in an online education program on seizures, demonstrated that a majority (70%) failed to meet the minimum passing score of 80% to qualify for nursing credit. Therefore, despite being motivated to participate and having an affiliation with a professional gerontological nursing association, evidence-based guidelines and general understanding of seizure management is not widely understood, as measured by a pre-test. The significance of the findings is that education on seizure management is an identified learning need and in fact, a survey of the NGNA membership, found that 70% of the members seek education on this topic (2007).