Effect of “Egyptian Acute Seizure Management Guidelines” Education on Emergency Room Pediatricians

Abstract Background Acute convulsive seizure in children is the most terrifying experience to parents. Status epilepticus can be life threatening in children if not early and properly managed. There are no unified management guidelines for childhood acute seizure management in Egypt. The Egyptian acute seizure management in children's guidelines provides a framework for diagnosing and caring for children experiencing an acute convulsion, which is intended to assist health care providers Aim of the Work To assess pediatricians’ knowledge about acute seizure management in emergency department, and to evaluate the effect of education on their knowledge. Methods The current study is an interventional study, on physicians treating children with acute seizures in emergency departments, from August 2022 to May 2023, an online survey was prepared by the authors according to the “Egyptian acute seizure management in children’s guidelines”, then 3 electronic forms were designed online using Research Data Capture Software (REDCap). In the first form (pre-intervention phase) The public link is one link sent through whatsApp groups for pediatricians or general practitioner; containing their personal data and questions assessing their knowledge about acute seizure management in children, two hundred and twenty three pediatrician responded to it. The second form (intervention phase) educational materials (a PDF file contains the guidelines and educational video) sent automatically after the participant finished and submitted the pretest. One week later (post intervention phase) unique link was sent for each participant to his e-mail. Each participant initial (pre-test) and final (post-test) answers were analyzed for the level of knowledge and stratified into Poor ≤50%, 50-75% Fair and ≥ 75% good according to his/her correct answers. Results In the pre-intervention phase, the majority of the participants (66.8%) had poor knowledge about pediatric acute seizure management. Females were found to have lower knowledge levels than males. In the post-intervention phase of the study, the majority of participants (70%) who completed the post-intervention phase had good knowledge level (75%) and the rest (25%) had fair knowledge level. Conclusion We concluded that education to enhance healthcare providers' knowledge about acute pediatric seizure management is mandatory. The study's findings imply that focused education can significantly raise knowledge levels aiming at raising the standard of care given to children with acute seizures in the ER.