Children are the nation’s supremely important asset who determines the future of the nation. Any input into the health of the children today will be an investment since they are the adults of next decade. According to WHO Children are a priceless resource and that any nation which neglect them would do so at its peril. WHO day spot light the basic truth that we must all safeguard the healthy minds and bodies of the world’s children, a key factor for bringing up healthy generation. A child is the greatest treasure of mankind, his health, well-being, his safety and future in the hands of his parents and teachers throughout their developmental stages [1].

Epilepsy is the second most common chronic neurological condition seen by neurologists among all age group worldwide. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder resulting from a sudden, excessive, disorderly discharge of neurons, in either a structurally normal or a diseased cerebral cortex. It is characterized by the paroxysmal occurrence of short-lived disturbances of consciousness, involuntary convulsion muscle movement and sensory disturbances.

As it hits the most important formative years of the majority of the students, education does get hampered, especially when parents are over protective and teachers are either non-supportive or neutral with negative attitude. Once teachers accept and have empathy for them, peers would automatically accept them [2,3]. 

Epilepsy related knowledge of teachers is crucial for child’s safety in the school. Life-threatening emergencies can happen at any school, at any time. Studies reported tragic death of school children’s followed by an epileptic seizure due to lack of first-aid seizure management and trained professionals within the school premises, teachers precisely. Assessing knowledge towards epilepsy will help in the designing of better interventions to prevent physical and psychological trauma through unknowingly care [4,5].

Objectives of the Study

• To assess the pre-test knowledge regarding epilepsy management in school children among teachers working in selected senior secondary schools of District Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

• To develop and administer the structured teaching program on knowledge regarding epilepsy management in school children among teachers working in selected senior secondary schools of District Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

• To evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching program on knowledge regarding epilepsy management in school children among teachers working in selected senior secondary schools of District Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

To find out the association between knowledge regarding epilepsy management in school children among teachers working in selected senior secondary schools with their selected demographic variables [6,7].

• Research Approach: Quantitative

• Research Design: Pre Experimental one group pre-test post-test design

• Setting of the Study: Selected senior secondary schools of Distt. Shimla

• Study Population: Teachers working in selected senior secondary schools of Distt. Shimla

• Sample Size: About 30 senior secondary school teachers

• Sampling Technique: Non-Probability -convenience sampling technique

• Inclusion Criteria: The teachers who were

• Working in selected senior secondary schools of district Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

• Willing to participate in the study

• Available at the time of data collection

Exclusion Criteria 

The teachers who were:

• Not working in selected senior secondary schools of district Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

• Not willing to participate

• Not present at the time of study

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Development of Tool

A self-structured questionnaire was prepared comprising of 30 questions. The tool was developed after the intense library search, consultation with experts and with the investigator’s personal and professional experiences.

Description of Tool

Section A: It consists of socio demographic data of teachers working in selected senior secondary schools such as age, gender, educational qualification, teaching experience, teaching specialization, previous knowledge, source of information.

Section B: This section consists of 30 multiple-choice questions. This section was prepared to assess the knowledge of senior secondary school teachers regarding epilepsy management in school children. Each question had one correct option and each possible correct response was assigned one mark and the wrong answer carries zero mark. Maximum marks were 30 and minimum score was 0:

Validity of Tool

By the experts in this field.

Permission

Obtained from the Principal of selected senior secondary schools.

Ethical Consideration

Ethical approval was taken from the Ethics Committee of Sister Nivedita Govt. Nursing College, I.G.M.C Shimla.

Informed Consent

Informed written consent was taken from the participants and confidentiality was also maintained.

Data Collection

By myself under the guidance of supervisors. Teachers were given 30 minutes to complete the pre-test and thereafter Structured Teaching Programme was administered with the help of power point presentation. Post test was conducted after one week.

Data Analysis

Analysis and interpretation of data was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics, mean, frequency, standard deviation, t-test, chi-square test and Karl Pearson’s test.

The data was organized and represented under following sections:

• Section-1: Findings related to frequency and percentage distribution of socio-demographic variables

• Section-2: Findings related to pre-test knowledge scores of teachers regarding epilepsy management in school children 

• Section-3: Findings related to post-test knowledge scores of teachers regarding epilepsy management in school children

• Section-4: Findings related to effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme (STP) regarding epilepsy management in school children 

• Section-5: Findings related to association of knowledge of teachers regarding epilepsy management in school children with selected demographic variables

Section-1

Table 1 it was seen majority of the teachers (40%) were from the age group of 36-45 years followed by 30% in 25-35 years age, 30% of sample were in age group 46-55years and 0% had >55 years of age. It was seen that majority of teachers were females (90%) and remaining (10%) were males. It was seen that majority of teachers Educational status (76.7%) was post-graduation whereas (16.7%) were graduate and few (6.7%) had done their doctorate. Majority of the teachers 46.7% had >10 year of job experience, 30% with 1-5year job experience and 23.3% with 6-10 year of job experience, 0% had <1 year of job experience. Majority of teachers teaching specialization 40.0% were from arts followed by 30.0% from science, 23.3% from other specialization and least 6.7% were from commerce specialization. (76.7%) majority of teachers had previous knowledge regarding epilepsy and (23.3%) had no knowledge. Maximum number of teachers 46.7% source of information was mass media, followed by 13.3% from health professionals, 13.3% from other sources and least from training programs.

Table 1: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Socio Demographic Variables

Section-2

Table 2 depicts that in pre-test 0(0%) of the teachers had good knowledge, 19(63.3%) had average knowledge, 11(36.7%) had poor knowledge. Thus it is concluded that none of the group fall under good category of knowledge. 

Table 2: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Pre-Test Knowledge Scores of Teachers Regarding Epilepsy Management in School Children

Section-3

Table 3 depicts that in post-test knowledge scores, 28(93.3%) had good knowledge, 2(6.7%) had average knowledge and 0 (0%) had poor knowledge. Thus it is concluded that there is increase in the post test knowledge scores.

Table 3: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Post-Test Knowledge Scores of Teachers Regarding Epilepsy Management in School Children

Section 4

Table 4 depicts that the pre-test range was 6-18, mean 11.93 and standard deviation was 3.311, mean percentage was 39.80% and in post-test mean was 23.4, standard deviation was 2.358, mean percentage was 78.00% and mean difference was 11.470. The mean post-test score (23.4) was higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score (11.93). The calculated ‘t’ value (20.232) was greater than the table value (t = 2.05) at 0.05 level of significance. Hypothesis H₁ was accepted, hence it can be inferred that the Structured Teaching Programme was effective in increasing the knowledge of teachers regarding epilepsy management in school children.

Table 4: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Difference between Pre-Test and Post-Test Knowledge Score, Mean Value and Standard Deviation, Mean Percentage, Range, Mean Difference, Paired T-Test, p-value of Samples

*Significance Level 0.05

Section-5 

Findings related to association of knowledge of teachers regarding epilepsy management in school children with selected demographic variables.

Study findings reveals that p value for age, gender, educational status, teaching specialization, previous knowledge regarding epilepsy and source of information were more than 0.05 and calculated (χ²) was less than tabulated (χ²) value which indicates that there is no association between age, gender, educational status, teaching specialization, previous knowledge regarding epilepsy and source of information at 0.05 level of significance.

The results of study revealed that, in pre-test 0(0%) of the teachers had good knowledge, 19(63.3%) had average knowledge, 11(36.7%) had poor knowledge whereas in post-test knowledge scores, 28(93.3%) had good knowledge, 2(6.7%) had average knowledge and 0 (0%) had poor knowledge. It was found that there was significant improvement in the post-test knowledge score with ‘t’ value 20.232 which was significant at ‘p’ <0.001. Study concluded that the structured teaching programme was effective in increasing the knowledge of teachers regarding management of epilepsy in school children.

Recommendations

• A similar study can be conducted in different settings and at large scale

• A study can be done to assess attitude and practice of teachers regarding management of epilepsy in school children 

• A similar study can be done by using different research methodologies

• A Quasi-experimental study could be conducted by taking two groups

Experimental study can be conducted to disseminate the study findings.

1. Datta P. Pediatric Nursing. 3rd Edn., Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, 2014, pp. 371-373.

2. Sharma, R. Essential of Pediatric Nursing. 1st Edn., Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, 2013, pp. 512-515.

3. Jose, J. “A study to evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge of school teachers regarding epilepsy and its management in children at Hilton Matriculation Higher Secondary School Chennai.” IAETSD Journal for Advanced Research in Applied Sciences, vol. 6, no. 7, 2019, pp. 123-126.

4. Tasgaonkar, N and S. Mathew. “Effectiveness of planned teaching on knowledge regarding epilepsy in children among primary school teachers.” International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), vol. 7, no. 5, 2018, pp. 519-522.

5. Nirwani, S. “A study to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge of first aid management on seizures among school teachers of selected schools of Belagavi Karnataka.” International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), vol. 9, no. 9, 2020, pp. 321-326.

6. Dixit, A.B. et al. “Recent advances in epilepsy research in India.” Neurology India, vol. 65, no. 7, 2017, pp. 83-92.

7. Epilepsy. World Health Organization, 2019, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/epilepsy.