Evaluation of nursing students' epilepsy-related knowledge and attitudes

This study evaluated the knowledge and attitudes of nursing students toward epilepsy.

The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with the voluntary participation of 161 nursing students in their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of study who were registered at the summer school of Trakya University, Faculty of Health Sciences in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data were collected through a research questionnaire form and the Epilepsy Knowledge and Attitude Scales. The normal distribution of the data was tested using the one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Nonparametric tests were used since the data were not normally distributed. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, range, numbers, and percentages), the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman's correlation test were used in the data analysis.

Half of the nursing students (55.9%) were females with a mean age of 22.14 ± 1.81 years, and 43.5% of the students were third-year students. Of the students, 90.7% were informed about epilepsy from sources including their school/course/instructor (64%), the television/internet (10.6%), and healthcare professionals (6.8%). The mean scores obtained on the Epilepsy Knowledge Scale (EKS) and the mean score on the Epilepsy Attitude Scale (EAS) were 10.23 ± 4.24 and 57.66 ± 8.83, respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between the knowledge and attitude scores of the students regarding epilepsy (p < .001). As the students' knowledge increased, their attitudes also increased positively toward epilepsy. The female students had a more positive attitude toward epilepsy than did the male students. Further, the students who had knowledge about epilepsy and who provided care for patients with epilepsy had higher scores and displayed more positive attitudes toward epilepsy (p < .05).

This study determined that the participating nursing students had a moderate level of knowledge regarding epilepsy. In addition to theoretical knowledge of epilepsy, the experience of caring for a patient with epilepsy had a positive effect on the students' attitudes. The nursing education curriculum should place greater focus on epilepsy and interventions for epilepsy seizures.