“Share experiences, strategies and emotions”. Expectations of patients with regard to health education with empowerment in epilepsy

Abstract Introduction Over the years, educational lines have focused on providing education and information to patients. The empowerment of the patient means involving him in his self-care and making it part of his disease process. Therefore, to improve our difficulties in education, it is necessary to identify the knowledge needs of patients in relation to their disease. Objective To explore the expectations of epilepsy patients regarding the health education received. Method design descriptive qualitative study from a hermeneutical perspective. Subjects: Intentional sampling of 18 patients with epilepsy volunteers to participate in health education sessions between January and July 2019. Data collection and analysis: Documentary technique through analysis of the wording to the question about their expectations in education sessions. Results We obtained 10 codes that are codified in 3 subcategories of expectations in education: learning and disease management, problems with mood and interaction and sharing with other people with epilepsy. The latter merge into 2 broad categories: Self-management and internal growth. Conclusions Patients with epilepsy, when attending group health education sessions, not only hope knowledge and management of the disease and crisis, but also hope and share their experiences with other patients, professional emotional support and know the treatment options and social resources.