“A pre-experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of plan teaching programme (PTP) on knowledge regarding convulsion and its management among health care workers in selected rural areas of Kolhapur”

Abstract

Background of the study:  Epilepsy is one of the first illnesses that humans have faced. Epilepsy has a lengthy history, and it was recognized by the Romans and Greeks even before the birth of Jesus Christ. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 50 million epileptic victims in the world today, 85 percent of them live in developing countries, and 2.4 million new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed each year. In Ayurveda, epilepsy is referred to as Apasmara. Treatment pauses are caused by a variety of factors, including administrative costs, a lack of case identification, and a failure to treat cases that have been discovered. People's views about the origins of epilepsy, the patterns of discomfort they experience, and their preferred methods of seeking care are all explored in cultural epidemiology of epilepsy. Epilepsy is linked to Patients and their families experience psychological and social anguish as a result of stigma in all countries. According to this research, Indians' perceptions of epilepsy are comparable to those in Western countries, but unfavorable opinions have a stronger impact on education, marriage, job, and other social activities. They also reveal that people frequently employ two or more healing systems, both allopathic and traditional, at the same time. More collaboration between neurologists and others working in the field of epilepsy and its causes is needed to raise public awareness and press for treatment and public health measures to prevent epilepsy. As a result, the researcher is interested in investigating the usefulness of PTP in the treatment of convulsions.

Material and Methods: One group was used as a control group in a pre-experimental study. A pre-test-post-test design was adopted, with a total of 60 samples chosen using a non-probability convenient sample procedure. Data on convulsion and its management among health care workers in selected rural regions of Kolhapur was obtained using Socio Demographic Variables and a Structured Knowledge Questionnaire.

Results: The results show that 58.66 % of health care workers has poor knowledge, 2.33 % had average knowledge, but none had good knowledge at the period of the pre-test. In a post-test after receiving the plan training programme, 35 (58.33 %) of health care workers had average knowledge, 25 (41.66 percent) had high knowledge, and none had bad knowledge. In the case of convulsion among health care workers, there was a highly significant difference in mean scores between pre-test and post-test. The tabulated't' value (ttab. = 2.00) is less than the computed't' value (tcal. = 60.8).As a result, H1 is approved but H0 is refused. At the 0.05 level, this implies that the plan teaching programme (PTP) is statistically significant. As a result, it was established that (PTP) was more effective in terms of improving health-care providers' awareness about convulsions and how to manage them. There is no significant relationship between pre-test knowledge scores and the socio-demographic variables that were chosen. All calculated values were lower than those in the table.Hence H2 are rejected and H0₂ is accepted.

Conclusion:  The study found that the majority of health-care workers had knowledge deficit and that the plan teaching programme (PTP) was helpful in improving health-care workers' consciousness about convulsions and how to manage them.