Nurse-Led Intervention on Teachers’ Knowledge and Management of Pupils with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Primary Schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State

Abstract

The objective of any educational system is to provide education for all learners with diverse needs and abilities to enable them to achieve their potential and subsequently contribute to society. Teachers are in a position to be the first to suspect that a child might have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) because they are with them for most of the day and they know how normal learners typically behave in classroom situations. One group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study was employed for this study. The population comprised 42 teachers in the selected schools. Total enumeration was used for the study. A self-structured questionnaire was validated and used to collect data. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the construct ranged from 0.741 to 0.808. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed 45.2% participants had low knowledge, 18.1% and 16.7% had moderate and high knowledge respectively at the pre-intervention stage while at the post-intervention stage, 14.3% had low knowledge score while 21.4% and 64.3% had moderate and high knowledge scores respectively. Also, at the pre-intervention stage of this study, it was found that 64.3% participants had a bad management score of ADHD while 35.7% had a good management score of ADHD. The result indicated that there is a non-significant difference in the post intervention knowledge and management of ADHD among the respondents as a p-value of 0.494 was recorded which is much greater than the alpha (α) p-value of 0.05. The study concluded that the role of teachers in the identification and management of ADHD cannot be overlooked. This shows that training and proper education of the teachers will go a long way in the management of attention deficit in the pupils. The study recommended that the management of ADHD should be included in educational programs. Also, there should be follow-up to monitor the progress of the teachers in the management of children with ADHD.