Epilepsy

Our Epilepsy courses aim to raise the awareness of epilepsy and guide people on how to support service users who have been diagnosed with the condition.

Epilepsy Awareness and Epilepsy in Later Life give a good introduction or refresher to the condition are now delivered as online training sessions.

Please select from the COURSES menu for full details of content, duration and fees. If you wish to book onto one of our open courses, dates are listed below. Or, if you are looking to arrange a training session on a date of your choice, please select a course and go to the group booking section.

If you are not sure that any of these courses will suit your training needs, please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Open Course Dates

Epilepsy Awarenesstbc-

Course Director

John Foley RMN, RGN, RNMH, Dip Comm H, Member of ESNA, Member of the Epilepsy Task Force, Founder Member of Scottish Professionals Epilepsy Network.

John is Nurse Specialist for people who have epilepsy and a learning disability in the Lothian Health Area. He played a leading part in the development of the Lothian Health training standards in the administration of rectal diazepam and and remains closely involved in developing training programmes for all staff involved in the care of people with epilepsy.

Guidelines & Statutory Requirements

Midazolam

Midazolam now has a limited licence for the treatment of epilepsy and the drug is included in the NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) and SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network) Guidelines and in the Lothian Formulary, and is being prescribed widely for the control of prolonged and serial seizures. This has many benefits for patients and carers and is a much more socially acceptable method of controlling seizures than rectally administered medication.

Many care organisations now have clients who are prescribed the medication on a “Named Patient Basis” and Training for Care provides training in the procedure. This allows carers to administer the medication to specified clients in their care, but is not transferable between organisations.

Diazepam

There are no specific statutory requirements for the provision of this training, but the Joint Epilepsy Council’s “Guideline on Training Standards in the Administration of Rectal Diazepam” is the most authoritative source of national advice.

For service providers in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Lothian Health’s “Training Standards for the Administration of Rectal Diazepam” provides core guidance. (This document is intended as a guideline for those purchasing as well as those delivering training in the administration of rectal diazepam in epilepsy. It establishes the minimum standards of training necessary for administration of rectal diazepam by carers in all settings). The Standards set out requirements for the content of training, course length, group sizes, training materials, retraining and trainer competence.

Maintaining Currency

The course director’s advice, based on current local practice, is that two-yearly updating for the administration of rescue medication and three-yearly updating for epilepsy awareness is seen as good practice.

Certification

TfC Certificate of Attendance.

Courses which include formal training in Diazepam Rectal Tube Administration certificate the knowledge acquired through satisfactory completion of the course, and state compliance with the JEC and NHS Lothian standards.

The delivery of the course was excellent. Very good trainer, kept everyone’s attention and encouraged questions at the time rather than waiting until the end. Offered time at the end for further questions if anyone had any. Very thorough when delivering the information. Excellent course with the opportunity to use practical skills as well with the kits he brought for mock dispensing.

Buccal and Nasal Midazolam Administration, Karen, Fife Council

The Midazolam Administration Course was excellent, the instructor was totally able to have everyone get Involved and clear instructions given when being shown how to use equipment.

Buccal and Nasal Midazolam Administration, Patricia, Fife Council

Course was done in a way that keeps you interested in the subject the trainer John used humour but was very insightful and knowledgeable , I learned a lot from the course and would recommend to others.

Buccal and Nasal Midazolam Administration, Gina, Fife Council