Montgomery County, Maryland is concerned that pediatric asthma is the leading cause of hospitalization of children 0-9 years of age and a significant cause in 10-14 and 15-17 year olds. Moreover, the hospitalization rate is 4 times as high in African American as white children. Montgomery Asthma Initiative Resources (Montgomery AIR), a coalition of more than 80 public, private, and non-profit agencies and organizations, is actively seeking ways to reduce these rates. One recent effort focused on improving communication between school nurses and parent of asthmatic 5-7 year olds. During winter, 2001, we convened a focus group of nurses and eight parent focus groups, representing eight elementary schools, to obtain information on how nurses and parents communicate about pediatric asthma. Nurses raised several key issues and themes about resources and materials available for communicating with parents as well as the educational materials they would like to use with parents and children. In addition, they identified the roles they would like to have in addressing asthma issues in schools. The school nurses described what would help improve communication and education efforts with parents about pediatric asthma.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants in this session will be able to: 1. List the issues school nurses face in communicating with parents about pediatric asthma. 2. Discuss roles school nurses believe health care practitioners should play in educating parents about children’s asthma. 3. Identify materials that nurses would like in order to strengthen their communications with parents about pediatric asthma.
Keywords: Asthma, Communication
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.