Education requirements for nurses working with people with complex neurological conditions: relatives' perceptions

This paper reports on the exploration of relatives' perceptions about the need for education and training of nurses (registered nurses and healthcare assistants) who work with people who have complex neurological long-term conditions. A service evaluation was undertaken to meet the study aim and a cross-sectional, self-administered postal questionnaire was undertaken with relatives related to someone (patient/resident) with a complex neurological condition between October and November 2007 at one specialist hospital in south-west London in the UK. Results indicate that the majority of respondents (87.2%, n = 34) believe that nurses working in this setting require specific complex neurological disability education and training. The perceptions of relatives support the need for the development of specialist education and training for nurses working with this patient population. These findings are similar to other neurological and rehabilitation studies, and warrant further exploration across multiple sites.