Who is this course for?
This short, virtual course is ideal for any healthcare professional looking to develop a good overall understanding of epilepsy, from detection and diagnosis, through to treatment and management, practical service planning, and an awareness of the day to day impact of the condition on those who live with it.
Intended to provide a strong, practical and evidence-based background into epilepsy, it is ideal for any healthcare professional including consultants, registrars, nurses, neurosciences pharmacists, allied health professionals, GPwERs, associate specialists, staff grade physicians, or clinical fellows.
International healthcare professionals are also very welcome – although please be advised that this course is delivered from a UK perspective.
How is the course taught?
Provided in a series of themed sessions, Epilepsy Bitesize is a fully virtual course comprising on-demand sessions by specialists and experts across the epilepsy field, including neurology, pharmacy, management, and lived experience.
The sessions can be accessed in the delegates’ own time via our designated online learning portal. The course can be completed in a time frame and style that best suits each learner, whether compressed into a few days of concentrated learning, or spread out across several weeks.
With supporting papers and resources shared online as well, each individual will be equipped to complete the course in the way that both optimises their learning experience and fits with their other commitments.
Upon completion of all sessions you will also receive a certificate to add to your portfolio.
Epilepsy Bitesize is comprised of
Seven virtual on-demand sessions:
1. What are seizures and epilepsy? – definitions, including provoked/symptomatic seizures, introduction to the terminology
– Dr Richard Davenport, Consultant Neurologist, NHS Lothian
2. How to diagnose and investigate suspected epilepsy
– Dr Richard Davenport
3. Treatment options in epilepsy – when, what drug, how long for with examples of case studies. How to choose the right drug for the right person, branded vs generic prescribing, special situations
– Dr Shona Scott, Consultant Neurologist, NHS Lothian
4. Epilepsy and women
– Dr Shona Scott
5. Epilepsy – role of pharmacy, future treatment targets and horizon scanning
– Joela Mathews, Lead Neuroscience Pharmacist, Barts Health NHS Trust
6. COVID-19 – Maintaining core services: headache and epilepsy
– Julie Riley, Divisional Director Neurology, The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust
7. Lived experience from The Voice For Epilepsy
– Kasam Parkar, The Voice For Epilepsy
Free education for healthcare professionals: Epilepsy Bitesize
The Voice for Epilepsy is endorsing a new course designed to raise awareness and understanding of epilepsy amongst health care professionals.
The course, Epilepsy Bitesize, is a free resource produced by Epilepsy Academy, one of a range of professional educational academies offered by Neurology Academy. The organisation provides uniquely practical education to produce specialist clinical leaders and transform local healthcare, and they have just begun to apply two decades of experience in neurology education to epilepsy.
Founder of the Voice for Epilepsy, Kasam Parkar, provides one of the sessions for the course, giving a clear and honest insight into how epilepsy can affect someone’s lives, and the lives of those they love. This session sits alongside several others, recorded by experts in the field from neurologists to neuro pharmacists, to provide a well-rounded overview of epilepsy.
The varied topics covered by Epilepsy Bitesize, including diagnosis, medication management, family planning and health service optimisation are designed to expand professional understanding, and to provide a firm foundation for those working in neurology to feel confident as they support people living with epilepsy to live their best lives.
Managing Director of Neurology Academy Sarah Gillett, said:
‘Often the reality of epilepsy isn’t understood. I want to help medics to become more compassionate – to help them see the person behind the diagnosis, the life behind the treatment.’
To find out more, visit https://neurologyacademy.org/epilepsy-academy or type ‘Epilepsy Academy’ into your search engine.
Whether it’s baking 26 cupcakes,
Climbing your stairs 26 times,
Doing 2.6 minutes of skipping,
Juggling for 2.6 minutes,
Or a 26 minute Exercise Class.
All we ask is that you donate £26 to our challenge page, or set up your own page and have your own target to raise
Kasam Parkar, founder of UK-based voluntary organisation the Voice for Epilepsy, lives with epilepsy himself. He shares his own story, which began at university in his twenties, and talks about the impact that it has on his family and their role in caring for him post-seizure. He goes on to highlight some of the concerns he has, and challenges that are faced by people with epilepsy in the UK, to shed light on difficulties which he believes need addressing urgently.
He also highlights the difficulty of finding others living with epilepsy at the time of his diagnosis, whether due to social stigma, shame or embarrassment, concern over their vocational position, or the impressions of their families, and the continued experience of similar issues today.
