Nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, preraration and skills for serving people with epilepsy and developmental disability

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a survey of a representative sample of institutionally based nursing staff who work with patients who have developmental disability (DD). The survey investigated nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, preparation and skills with regard to patients who have dual diagnoses of epilepsy and DD and identified some significant deficiencies in these domains. Based on these findings, the paper indicates a need to establish appropriate training programs for nurses so that the needs of these patients can be better addressed.