Teaching Self-Management Skills to Asthmatic Children and Their Parents in an Ambulatory Care Setting

Abstract

A program designed to teach self-management skills to asthmatic children and their parents was performed by a nurse-educator utilizing health education techniques. Goals included the following: reduce frequency and severity of asthma; reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations; reduce school absenteeism; develop positive family self-help attitudes; incorporate patient-parent education in an office. After informed consent was obtained, 26 asthmatic children, aged 2-14 yr, were selected and evaluated. Appropriate asthma management including avoidance, medications and immunotherapy, if indicated, was initiated for both a study group (13 patinets) and a comparison group (13 patients). Symptom and medication diaries were kept for 6-18 mo. Educational intervention by a nurse-educator, including 4 h of individual instruction, group classes, telephone access and monitoring for the study patients resulted in fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits compared to control patients, 10-fold less school absenteeism and fewer asthma attacks. Estimated hospital and emergency room costs were much less in the educated group. These results were accomplished by improving comprehension of and compliance with the medical management program by the study patients and their families; more medications were used and therapy for asthma was initiated earlier.