Evaluation of a Symposium on Epilepsy as a Method of Training

Abstract

A MAJOR PROBLEM in healtlh communications is to update the level of skills and knowledge of health practitioners-physicians, nurses, and auxiliary medical personnel. The symposium, in which experts are brought together with persons who feel a need to increase their information and capabilities, has been a major means of attempting to accomplish this task. The questions that have not been answered satisfactorily are the usefulness of this training method and how to improve it. As a first step in gauging the effectiveness of the symposium as a training method, we conducted a followup evaluation of a 3-day symposium on the care of the epileptic presented by Jefferson Medical College and Pennsylvania State University in Harrisburg on May 27-29, 1965. The symposium was sponsored jointly by the Neurological and Sensory Disease Service Program, Public Health Service, Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Epilepsy Foundation, the Epilepsy Association of America, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society. The followup study was conducted by the Epilepsy Foundation to aid in planning similar future symposia. This evaluation encompasses the backgrounds of participants, the symposium's values and benefits to their practices, criticisms of content and presentation, and recommendations for improving future symposia. Nineteen presentations by medical professors and specialists were planned to provide a comprehensive covera,ge of epilepsy. Topics ranged through definition of the problem of epilepsy, classification of seizures, diagnosis and treatment, and information on sources of community aid to the patient and his family. The evaluation, however, covered only 18 of the 19 presentations since the session on trauma and epilepsy was inadvertently omitted from the followup questionnaire. A printed questionnaire was mailed a week after the close of the symposium to the 145 people who had preregistered. The questionnaire requested quantitative ratings of statements regarding presentation of the symposium and the separate lectures, as well a,s posing open-ended questions concerning points of value and recommendations for improvements. Two sets of followup letters were sent to those not responding, with a final total response of 98. Of these, 86 actually participated in the symposium, approximately two-thirds of the estimated attendance. No record of actual registrants was kept. However, approximately 130 sets of materials were passed out at the registration desk. Dr. Schlesinger is research consultant for the Epilepsy Foundation and associate research professor of psychology at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Mr. Feil is a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy at Catholic University in Washington. Mr. Sukofj is the Foundation's national director of informa.tion and education.