Abstracts

Parents of children with epilepsy often lack seizure management skills due to inaccurate or incomplete information and knowledge about their children[apos]s seizure conditions. Moreover, parents have a great number of fears and worries associated with their child[apos]s condition. The purpose of the study was to test the effectiveness of a psychoeducational intervention designed to improve seizure management skills by reducing concerns and fears and improving knowledge about seizures., A quasiexperimental design was used to examine the effectiveness of the Be Seizure Smart intervention in a sample of parents of children with new-onset seizures. Based on each individual[apos]s pre-assessment, customized information was sent to meet the individual[apos]s unique needs. Once the information was received, a series of four 30-minute phone calls approximately one week apart were made to address the parent[apos]s identified areas of need. Pre and post assessment measures included general concerns and fears about seizures (9 items), concerns about seizure management (8 items), psychosocial care needs (6 items on information and 8 items on support), uncertainty (31 items), knowledge about seizures (20 items), mood associated with their child[apos]s seizure condition (10 items), and satisfaction with family functioning (5 items)., The sample consisted of 22 mothers, 2 fathers, and 1 grandmother. The children (14 females and 11 males) ranged in age from 5 to 13 years, with a mean age of 8.2 years. Parents had significantly lower scores for concerns and fears (p[lt].001), concerns about seizure management (p[lt].001), need for information and support (p[lt].001), and uncertainty in illness [total uncertainty (p[lt].001), ambiguity (p[lt].001), lack of clarity (p[lt].001), and lack of information (p[lt].05)] after the intervention than before. As predicted, parents had significantly higher scores post intervention for knowledge about seizures (p[lt].001) and mood (p[lt].001). Although parent scores on satisfaction with family functioning were more positive and scores on unpredictability were lower, results did not reach statistical significance., Overall, Be Seizure Smart was a successful intervention program. A major strength of the program was that it was tailored to meet each parent[apos]s individual needs, allowing parents to discuss specific concerns with the research nurse. The program can be easily transferable to the clinical setting as the pre-assessment takes only 10 minutes and the 1-page fact sheets are already developed. Follow-up phone calls to discuss the written materials could prove to be cost effective by decreasing the number of office visits and physician calls., (Supported by: Funded by grant # P30 NR05035 (PI: Austin, Joan K.) from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) to the Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness at Indiana University School of Nursing.)