Epilepsy with Emergency Medication

Epilepsy with Emergency Medication

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Epilepsy awareness with emergency medication training delivered at your workplace. Half a day. Practical buccal midazolam competency. The decision-making framework care workers need when a seizure becomes a crisis.

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Course Overview

A care worker came to training having already administered buccal midazolam in an emergency. The individual had been hospitalised. When we worked through the administration technique in the session, the gap became clear immediately: she had put the medication onto the tongue, not into the buccal cavity. She hadn’t been shown the difference. Her protocol document said ‘administer buccally’, and nothing had ever shown her, in practice, what that meant.

The medication didn’t absorb correctly. A seizure that could have been managed in the community became a hospital admission.

That’s the most consistent failure point we see in emergency epilepsy medication training: care workers who have a protocol, have signed to say they understand it, and have never physically practised the technique before the moment it counted. Knowing that buccal midazolam should be administered into the buccal cavity is not the same as being able to do it correctly under pressure, on a person who may be post-ictal, frightened, and pushing you away.

Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication Training gives staff the understanding of epilepsy and seizure types they need as a foundation, then builds the specific practical competency that a signed protocol and a certificate of attendance cannot provide. By the end, learners know precisely when to administer emergency rescue medication, how to administer it correctly, and when not to: because attempting to administer to someone who has already come out of a seizure is dangerous and distressing for that individual. The course is aligned with NICE guideline NG217 (Epilepsies: diagnosis and management, updated 2024), Epilepsy Action professional guidance, and the Resuscitation Council UK 2025 guidelines. It reflects the legal framework governing Schedule 2 Controlled Drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 and aligns with CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment. Read our plain-language guide: Epilepsy: Let’s Clear a Few Things Up.

Course Details

• Duration: 3 to 4 hours, or a full day, depending on requirements
• Delivery: Face-to-face at your venue for the full course, including practical competency. Theory element available online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
• Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication
• Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
• Competency sign-off: Available on request for face-to-face sessions, against recommended clinical guidelines, with documentation suitable for staff files
• Validity: 2 years
• Group size: Maximum 12 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is for staff whose role includes administering prescribed emergency rescue medication to individuals with epilepsy.

• Care assistants and support workers in care homes, supported living, and domiciliary care
• Senior carers and team leaders responsible for emergency medication protocols
• Personal Assistants supporting individuals via Direct Payments or Personal Health Budgets
• Special school staff and SEND support teams
• Residential and supported living teams supporting individuals with a known seizure history
• Nurses and clinical staff requiring a structured refresher with formal competency sign-off

Staff should only administer emergency rescue medication where it has been prescribed for a named individual, where they are authorised under their organisation’s medication administration policy, and where they have received appropriate training including practical competency assessment. This course supports all three requirements.

For staff who need epilepsy awareness without medication administration, our Epilepsy Awareness course gives the knowledge and response confidence without the medication component. Not sure which course is right for different members of your team? Get in touch, and we’ll help you work it out before you commit.

Why This Training Matters

Status epilepticus is a prolonged seizure or a series of seizures without recovery between them. NICE guideline NG217 sets the threshold clearly: a tonic-clonic seizure lasting five minutes or more, or two or more seizures without full recovery, requires immediate intervention. For individuals with prescribed rescue medication, that intervention is buccal midazolam or rectal diazepam, administered by a trained and authorised member of staff while emergency services are called.

The decision to administer is not simple under pressure. The care worker has to assess whether the seizure threshold has been met, locate and access the medication, confirm it is prescribed for this individual, administer it correctly, and monitor the response, all in a situation that is already frightening, potentially chaotic, and time-critical. A member of staff who has only read the protocol is not prepared for that moment. A member of staff who has practised the decision-making and the technique in a controlled setting is.

Buccal midazolam is a Schedule 2 Controlled Drug under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. It is prescribed for a named individual. It must not be administered to any other person, regardless of whether another service user also has rescue medication prescribed. This is a legal requirement and one of the most consistently misunderstood points in care settings where more than one resident has a seizure history. CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment requires providers to protect individuals from avoidable harm. For services supporting people with epilepsy and prescribed rescue medication, that means staff who are trained, competent, and able to demonstrate that competence in a documented and auditable way.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects NICE guideline NG217 and Epilepsy Action professional guidance throughout. Topics covered include:

Understanding Epilepsy

• Epilepsy: causes, diagnosis, and the most persistent myths in care settings
• The full spectrum of seizure types: tonic-clonic, focal aware, focal impaired awareness, absence, myoclonic, and atonic
• Seizure triggers, individual risk factors, and how care plans and epilepsy management plans reflect these
• Reading, following, and contributing to an individual’s emergency epilepsy protocol

Recognising a Seizure Emergency

• Status epilepticus: clinical definition, recognition, and why it is a medical emergency
• The five-minute threshold and repeated seizures without recovery
• The decision-making framework: when emergency medication is required and when it is not

Emergency Medication Administration

• Buccal midazolam: what it is, how it works, and why correct technique and placement matter
• Rectal diazepam: when it may be prescribed as an alternative
• Schedule 2 Controlled Drug requirements: storage, access, recording, and the named-individual rule
• Consent and legal considerations for emergency medication administration
• Practical administration simulation with direct trainer observation and feedback (face-to-face sessions)
• Competency sign-off against recommended clinical guidelines (face-to-face, available on request)

Post-Emergency Care and Documentation

• Monitoring following administration: what to observe and what to record
• When to call 999 and what information to give emergency services
• Post-ictal care: supporting recovery with dignity
• Controlled drug documentation and accurate medication administration records
• Communication with families, GPs, and specialist epilepsy teams following an emergency
• Airway management and the BLS principles relevant to seizure emergencies

Every course is also built to include your emergency epilepsy protocols, medication governance documents, and the particular rescue medications prescribed for individuals you support as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

The theory element of this course is available online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The practical element, including medication administration simulation and competency sign-off, is only available face-to-face. For most organisations booking this course, face-to-face delivery is the right choice: the whole point of the practical component is that staff experience the technique before they need it, not after.

In face-to-face sessions, every learner practises the administration technique on a simulation trainer, working through the decision-making process in real-time scenarios before the trainer observes and provides documented competency sign-off against recommended clinical guidelines. Competency documentation is available on request for inclusion in staff files and CQC inspection evidence.

Groups are capped at 12 to ensure every learner gets sufficient hands-on time. Every session is built around your working environment, your emergency epilepsy protocols, and your organisation’s medication governance documents. If you haven’t reviewed your protocols recently, the enquiry process is a good starting point.

Delivery includes:

• Clinically grounded explanation of seizure types, status epilepticus, and the decision-making framework for medication administration
• Scenario-based work covering the situations most likely to cause hesitation or error, including recognising post-ictal recovery and knowing when not to administer
• Practical buccal midazolam administration simulation with direct trainer observation and feedback
• Competency sign-off against recommended clinical guidelines (on request, face-to-face sessions only)
• Review of the emergency epilepsy protocol, medication storage and access, and documentation requirements

Epilepsy Awareness or Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication?

Some staff need epilepsy awareness. Some staff need medication competency. Many organisations need both, but for different members of the team. The distinction is straightforward once you know it.

Epilepsy Awareness Training is right for staff who support individuals with epilepsy but are not required to administer rescue medication. It covers seizure recognition, safe seizure response, the most common myths, and what to do while waiting for emergency services. It is appropriate for all frontline staff in care settings where epilepsy is part of the population they support.

Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication Training is right for the staff who have medication administration as part of their role: the carers, team leaders, and support workers who will actually be reaching for the buccal midazolam when a seizure reaches the five-minute threshold. It builds on the awareness content and adds the controlled drug legal framework, the decision-making training for when to administer and when not to, and the hands-on practical competency that awareness training cannot include.

Many organisations book both: awareness training for the wider team, medication training for the smaller group who are authorised to administer. We can deliver both on the same day if that suits your staffing arrangements. We don’t make the determination of who needs which level; that sits with your organisation’s medication governance policy and the prescribing clinician. But we will help you work through it during the enquiry process.

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication, valid for 2 years.

For face-to-face sessions where competency sign-off has been requested and completed, a separate competency document is available for inclusion in the learner’s staff file and as CQC inspection evidence. This is the difference between a certificate of attendance and a record of demonstrated practical competency.

For a skill of this clinical significance, that difference matters. Two-yearly refresher training is required. Care plans change, medication protocols are updated, and practical skills deteriorate without reinforcement. Our Epilepsy Awareness course remains the foundation-level option for staff who do not have a medication administration role.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

• 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
• All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
• We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 12 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

Further Reading

• Epilepsy: Let’s Clear a Few Things Up: Common myths and misunderstandings about epilepsy and seizure management in care settings
• Care Certificate Standard 3: Duty of Care   What duty of care requires of staff, including responsibilities around emergency medication
• Care Certificate UK Guide: How all 16 Care Certificate standards work together, including Standard 3

Related Courses

• Epilepsy Awareness Training
• Basic Life Support (BLS) & AED Training
• Medication Administration Training

Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

This course is reviewed against updates from NICE, Epilepsy Action, the Resuscitation Council UK, and the Care Quality Commission, and current UK legislation including NICE guideline NG217 (Epilepsies: diagnosis and management, updated 2024), the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, and the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

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Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This page is for general guidance only and reflects current UK legislation, NICE guidance, and sector best practice as of the date of review. It does not constitute clinical, legal, or medical advice. Completion of this course does not independently authorise staff to administer emergency rescue medication. Staff may only administer buccal midazolam or rectal diazepam where it has been prescribed for the named individual, where they are expressly authorised to do so under their organisation’s medication administration policy, and where they have received appropriate training including practical competency assessment. Buccal midazolam is a Schedule 2 Controlled Drug under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 and must be stored, recorded, and administered in accordance with all applicable legal requirements. It must not be administered to any individual other than the named person on the prescription under any circumstances. Emergency rescue medication must always be administered in conjunction with a 999 call for emergency services. Organisations remain responsible for ensuring their medication policies, governance frameworks, and staff authorisation processes comply with all applicable legislation and CQC regulatory requirements.

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