The Effect of an Educational Intervention for Improving Mothers’ Care for their Children with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a group of permanent disorders of movement and posture results from brain damage originating early in life and causes activity limitation, sensory, cognitive, communicative and behavioral problems in children. Nurses have an important role in providing support and ongoing education to the children with cerebral palsy and their parents especially the mothers who are the primary caregivers for their children and also, provide them with adequate knowledge and training about the skills of daily living according to their children’s functional level. Aim: Evaluate the effect of an educational intervention for improving mothers’ care for their children with cerebral palsy. Method: A quasi- experimental design was used to conduct this study, including 65 mothers having children with cerebral palsy. The tools of   data collection were a structured questionnaire sheet and observation checklists. Results: The results of this study clarified that, the majority of the studied mothers had unsatisfactory knowledge before the teaching program while, all of them had satisfactory knowledge about cerebral palsy and care of associated problems in their children after 6 months of the educational program. Also, more than half of the studied mothers had unsatisfactory reported practices before the educational program while, more than two thirds had satisfactory reported practices regarding daily care of their children with cerebral palsy after 6 months of the educational program. In addition, half of the studied mothers had a satisfactory observed practices before the teaching program while, the majority of them  had satisfactory observed practices post 6 months of the educational program. There was a statistical significant difference between the total knowledge score and the total practices score of the studied mothers regarding care of children with cerebral palsy. Conclusion: based on the results of the present study and research hypothesis, it is concluded that, the educational program was an effective in improving mothers care for their children with cerebral palsy.  Recommendations: Continuous educational programs should be provided for all mothers of children with cerebral palsy about the disease and daily care of their children in all health care settings by qualified and trained nurses.