The experiences and needs of primary school teachers who teach children with epilepsy

• Main Authors: Shu-Ching Lin, 林淑靖
• Other Authors: Mei-Chih Huang Associate Professor
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48549811475470421194

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 護理學系碩博士班 === 94 === Abstract Epilepsy is a common disorder that has been frequently misunderstood. Children with epilepsy usually combined physical, psychosocial, and learning problems, and often need additional concern and assistance from teachers. Serving as the role models for the children at school, teachers have great influence learning and development of a child with epilepsy. Consequently, the teachers play an important role to assist children with epilepsy at school. Current, the relevant studies focus on the cognition, attitude and practice of the teacher, and lack an adequate assessment for gaining a deep understanding to the actual experiences and needs in assisting an epileptic child. The purpose of this study was to gain a better knowledge into the experiences and needs of teachers who teach children with epilepsy. This study use focus group method to collect data. Convenience and snowballing sampling for school teachers who work as an internship, special education or regular teachers, and are currently or have interacted with epileptic children at least one semester of teaching, were recruited into the study, categorizing participating teachers into three focus groups. Content analysis and WinMax98 pro was used for data analysis. Patterns identified from the interviews were (a) teachers’ opinions of teaching epileptic children with illnesses and learning experiences； (b) teachers’ experiences of handling epileptic children of their learning and illness； (c) teachers’ opinions on gaining epileptic information；(d) interaction and communication of teachers with associated personnel；and (e) the needs of teachers who teach children with epilepsy. Several themes were identified from each of the patterns. The results reveal that the teachers gained different experiences when teaching epileptic children with varied characteristics in their illnesses；teachers’ perception on epilepsy will greatly affect how they assist and think of children with epilepsy；having a good interaction and cooperative relationship between teachers, family members, and school nurses is a successful core element for the care of epileptic children；an active communication between teachers and a suggested communicative bridge between teachers and doctors is a necessary key to the continuing care of children with epilepsy. Through these findings, pediatric nurse practitioners and other health care providers can establish appropriate methods to help these children cope with epilepsy and seizures to successfully adapt to school life, as well as develop more adequate questionnaires for future reference. Keywords：Children with epilepsy, Primary school teachers, Teaching experiences, Teaching needs, Focus group