By Samuel Chigamba | Project Leader
The Epilepsy Assessment and Management Course 6.0 (EAMC 6.0) is offered by Pretola Global Health and Consulting sponsored by Row Foundation and Danny Did Foundation, the course is a FREE four-month virtual training ideal for clinicians in Low to Middle Income Countries (LMICs) looking to stay abreast of latest research in epilepsy management and improve their patients’ outcomes.
The EAMC 6.0 offers a multidisciplinary approach to epilepsy management, featuring specialist sessions on Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy. Sessions are being delivered by leading international specialists in the field of epilepsy.
The Epilepsy Warriors Foundation coordinates the EAMC in Malawi and this year registered a total of 209 participants for the Course . The participants comprised 151 student nurses from Ekwendeni College of Health Sciences, 24 lecturers from Ekwendeni College of Health Sciences in the Northern Region of Malawi, 4 lecturers from the College of Health Sciences Zomba campus, 3 student nurses from the College of Health Sciences Zomba campus, and 27 healthcare practitioners from across Malawi.
Since the course began this year participants have covered the following topics;
Week 1
Topics:
Session 1: Course introduction
Session 2: What is Epilepsy?
Session 3: History taking in epilepsy diagnosis, presented
Week 2
Topic 1: Epilepsy and Stigma
Topic 2: Epilepsy care in puberty and transition
Week 3
Topic 1: SUDEP in low & Middle Income countries (LMIC)
Topic 2: SUDEP Prevention in Pregnancy
Topic 3: SUDEP Risk Assessment and Prevention
Week 4
Topic 1: Status Epilepticus
Topic 2: Epilepsy Treatment Options
Week 5
Topic 1: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Topic 2: Frontal Lobe Epilepsy
Week 6
Topic 1: Addressing the complex needs of people with Intellectual disability and epilepsy
Topic 2: Meeting the needs of women with epilepsy.
Challenges experienced since the EAMC begun
o Some student nurses being allocated leading to low turn up of participants at our EAMC Centre in Ekwendeni
o Some participants were unable to utilize zoom to join zoom session
o Internet was terribly slow at the EAMC Centre in Ekwendeni
o Student nurses facilitating the centre at Ekwendeni College of Health Sciences left several times for allocation, requiring college authorities to identify another laptop , another student to facilitate the activities at the centre from setting up a projector to connecting to zoom, registering participants
Mitigation
o Some participants from the EAMC Centre were furnished with zoom log in credentials to enable them access the course vitually
o Had orientation sessions with participants having problems using
o Identified a mobile carrier with better internet reception
o A lecturer facilitated the sessions at the centre enabling student nurses to joi the sessions in time and without any challenges
Future Plans
o To know before hand when student nurses would be going on alocation
o To conduct orientation sessions before participants
o To purchase a sateline internet gadget to be used at centres with poor internet connection
o To ensure that majority of participants can facilitate the centre in the absence of a lecture
Links:
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