Clinical Nursing Practice Guideline for Empowerment in epilepsy patients Roi Et hospital

Abstract

Purposes:  To study the problems of care for patients with epilepsy and develop guidelines and evaluate the results of used the clinical nursing practice guideline for empowerment in epilepsy patients, Roi Et hospital.

Study design: Action research.

Material and Methods : The sample group consisted of epilepsy patients aged 18 years and over, both male and female, diagnosed with epilepsy and treated with antiepileptic drugs, who received services at least 2 times at the Neurology and Epilepsy Clinic, Roi Et Hospital, total 35 people, and 9 nursing service providers. The study was conducted between November 2024 and April 2025. The research instruments were: 1) The experimental instrument was the Nursing Practice Guidelines for Empowering Epilepsy Patients. 2) The instruments used for data collection were the general information questionnaire, the satisfaction assessment form, and the quality of life assessment form.  Statistics used in the analysis include descriptive statistics and inferential statistics and Paired sample t-test. 95% confidence interval.

Main finding: Care for patients with epilepsy. Several problems were found that nurses and patients had to face, one of the most important being patients' lack of knowledge and skills in medication management, as well as barriers such as cost, leave, space and time constraints. Overall, these problems reflected the challenges in caring for patients with epilepsy, in terms of providing knowledge, building skills for patients to self-care, and facilitating travel and access to medical services. From the analysis and synthesis of empirical evidence, it led to the development of nursing practice guidelines to empower epilepsy patients, consisting of 7 approaches: 1. Creating a group 2. Sending patients to check via Telemedicine at a nearby hospital 3. Sending medicine by mail 4. Creating a calendar of teaching media for a list of medicines 5. Creating a protocol for screening patients to receive medicine by mail 6. Creating a self-care manual at home and 7. Creating a form for referring patients to a nearby hospital for treatment. The results of using the guidelines found that the sample group had the highest level of satisfaction (Mean= 4.55, SD. = 0.54). Before and after using the guidelines, the sample group had significantly different satisfaction and quality of life (p <.05).

Conclusion and recommendations: Nursing practice guidelines to empower epilepsy patients resulted in tangible satisfaction and improved quality of life for epilepsy patients. Therefore, the results of this study should be used to expand and develop nursing care for patients with other diseases.