The Epilepsy Action Plan (EAP) goes beyond providing epileptic care information – it gives caregivers the confidence and assurance they need to manage their children’s condition.
- Since its introduction, enquiries on basic seizure management have ceased
- It subsequently led to the founding of the KKH Children Epilepsy Support Group.
The Epilepsy Action Plan (EAP) goes beyond providing epileptic care information – it gives caregivers the confidence and assurance they need to manage their children’s condition.
Prior to the conceptualisation of the EAP in 2012, the Paediatric Neurology Service at KKH would receive an overwhelming number of calls from worried parents who were unsure of what to do during a seizure event.
“When the seizures happened, they were unable to recall the steps of seizure first aid due to their state of shock, so they would call us for help,” said Neurology Resource Nurse Clinician (NC) Martha Kao.
The neurology nurses and pharmacists would frequently be tied up with answering the same questions, to which they had the same responses to.
NC Martha Kao, KKH
This was what drove NC Kao and Senior Pharmacist Dorothy Lee to create the EAP. They also received full support from Dr Derrick Chan, Head & Senior Consultant of the Paediatric Neurology Service.
The EAP is a pictorial guide that efficiently conveys the steps for first aid, management of seizure medication, when to administer routine and emergency medication, as well as what to document after a seizure episode.
It utilises the traffic light system to categorise the severity of the seizure: green for short seizures, yellow for prolonged or a cluster of seizures, and red for the need to call an ambulance.
Since its introduction, enquiries on basic seizure management have ceased. The action plan has been copyrighted and disseminated to KKH neurology clinics, inpatient wards and junior doctor Orientation Programmes.
The EAP was updated again in 2014, and it now caters to patients who experience seizures but are not yet diagnosed with epilepsy. There is also a new guideline that advises when to safely administer a second dose of anti-epileptic drug after the initial dose has been vomited out.
The EAP was so well-received that it subsequently led to the founding of the KKH Children Epilepsy Support Group. The group convened for the first time in March 2014, and has organised other educational and recreational activities ever since. For instance, they recently collaborated with the Singapore Kite Association (SKA) to hold their fourth support group event at its annual Singapore Kite Day on 1 August.
“I’m happy we have found an effective way to redesign the care process of the paediatric patients,” said NC Kao.
“EAP has assisted caregivers and parents to connect better with their children's condition. It has also enabled us to understand them better and develop a support network. We want parents and caregivers to meet and get support from us.”
