Abstract

Aims and objectives of the Evaluation This poster demonstrates the development of a rigorous evaluation of a new primary care based education service for parents of children with eczema. This new service innovation (EEP) is funded by a charitable grant from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and is lead by a Consultant Nurse in Dermatology as part of a care pathway for children with eczema. The evaluation is lead by the Director of the Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life at Bournemouth University. Description The EEP aims to develop and evaluate an educational intervention that primary health care professionals (EEP trainers) can delivery to groups of parents/carers with the aim of empowering them to improve the management of eczema at home. The evaluation will build up an accurate picture of the implementation and impact of the EEP. The EEP is located in the South London Borough of Lambeth which has a higher proportion of residents from black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities than the rest of London and the rest of the UK. The population is highly mobile with a population turnover of more than 20% each year. The evaluation requires collaboration between the EEP Programme Coordinator and the Evaluation Team partners at Bournemouth University, Service Managers, Specialist Dermatology Services, Community Child Health Services, GPs and Accident and Emergency Departments. The evaluation has a two-year timescale and a finite budget and resource. Data collection focuses on three sources: parents and children, trainers, and service providers in primary and secondary care. In relation to the trainers the evaluation focuses on questionnaire and focus group data to examine: the user-friendliness of the EEP tools; the manageability of implementing the EEP; their knowledge, skill and learning related to effective family eczema education. When examining the experience of the parents the evaluation uses questionnaires and focus groups to address three areas: parental satisfaction with EEP and their ability to gain access to useful information on eczema management; parental self-efficacy and confidence in their understanding and skill related to parental management of eczema; their child/infant’s dermatology related quality of life (Lewis-Jones and Finlay 1995, Lewis-Jones et al 2001). Service use data will be collected from family doctors (GPs), dermatology out-patient clinics and accident and emergency departments in two local hospitals with the aim of ascertaining any changes in service use that may be attributed to the effect of the EEP. Conclusion/implications for dermatology nursing practice The results of the evaluation will contribute to our understanding of the feasibility and effectiveness of Dermatology Nurses disseminating their specialist knowledge to generic Child Health Practitioners in order to provide a new educational service for parents of children with eczema.