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178566 Training and empowering school nurses to educate other school staff about asthma

Monday, October 27, 2008: 11:10 AM

Jennifer Bolcoa, MSW , California Breathing Project, California Department of Public Health - Environmental Health Investigations Branch, Richmond, CA
Deanna Rossi, MPH , California Breathing Project, California Department of Public Health - Environmental Health Investigations Branch, Richmond, CA
Audio (mp3) recording Multimedia recording
All school personnel must be able to effectively manage student asthma if a crisis arises and a nurse is not immediately available. With this in mind, The Starlight Asthma Tool Kit for Schools was created as a resource for nurses to use when educating others about asthma. The Tool Kit contains handouts with easy to use, targeted asthma information geared for a range of health and non-health school personnel. There is also a section for parents. Most of the handouts are low-literacy, and some are available in Spanish. To encourage use, California Breathing developed an intensive day long training to be given throughout California. In 2007, over 300 school personnel, predominantly nurses, were trained on how to use the Tool Kit to effectively educate school staff members about asthma and how to manage student asthma. To gauge the impact of the trainings, participants were sent follow-up surveys at three months and one year to determine if they met their self-identified goals for using the Tool Kit in their schools and districts.

The presenter will give an overview of the well received training program. Additionally, the presenter will familiarize participants with the tool kit and make it available as a resource. Participants will learn about the teaching strategies used during the trainings, the incentives offered, and what follow-up evaluations indicate about the utility of the training in encouraging on-going use of the Tool Kit in the school setting. The Tool Kit and training are based on the CDC's coordinated school health.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the session, participants will be able to: 1. Identify ways in which targeted health information can be developed and disseminated to health and non-health professionals, including non-English speakers in the school setting; 2. List some of the training strategies used to educate school personnel on use of a multidisciplinary tool kit; 3. Describe the short-term and long-term impact of using intensive training methods to encourage the use of adult health education materials in the school setting; and 4. Understand the successes and challenges experienced by California schools in adopting a multidisciplinary approach to addressing an important school health issue.

Keywords: Asthma, School Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was the lead health educator planning and implementing the project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Innovations in School Asthma Programs
See more of: School Health Education and Services