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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 and Statutory Requirements
Midazolam
Midazolam is not licensed specifically for the treatment of epilepsy but the drug is included in the NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) and SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network) Guidelines and 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 content of the training, course length, group sizes, training materials, retraining and trainer competence.
Certification
TfC attendance certificate. Courses including formal training in DRTA certificate the knowledge acquired through satisfactory completion of the course, and state compliance with the JEC and Lothian Health standards.
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