Significance and Role of Epilepsy Specialist Nurse

Abstract

To clarify the importance and role of nurses with expertise in epilepsy care in Japan, we conducted interviews and questionnaire surveys with 30 epilepsy nurses certified by two epilepsy centers and 21 nurses working in 16 other regional core institutions for epilepsy. Certified epilepsy nurses have a relatively long experience in epilepsy care, and are engaged in a wide range of activities such as support for psychosocial aspects including family members, enlightenment/ education/ research, and collaboration with multiple professionals, in addition to adequate and safe observation of seizure symptoms. On the other hand, nurses of regional institutions often expressed concerns about response to seizures and EEG monitoring, and expressed positive views on the need of an epilepsy nurse education system and the introduction of a certified epilepsy nurse system. Certified epilepsy nurses have been shown to contribute to promoting epilepsy care and improving the quality of life of patients and their families/ caregivers, which has been proven in the literature. It is important for the entire organization to recognize the significance of fostering epilepsy specialist nurse and provide public support.