Using Nursing Students as Open Airways Facilitators Through a Community Partnership to Influence Asthma Outcomes

In conjunction with a community partnership with the American Lung Association, the Broome County Health Department, the Asthma Coalition of the Southern Tier, and the Decker School of Nursing, the American Lung Association's Open Airways for Schools program was integrated into a nursing curriculum and implemented by nursing students in several local elementary schools. Analysis of pretest/posttest data demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in asthma self-management for the students enrolled in the program. Improvements included knowing when to take medicine, ability to determine when they might start to wheeze or cough, ability to identify asthma triggers at home or at school, ability to remember the steps to take when having asthma symptoms, ability to stay calm during an asthma episode, ability to talk with their teacher about asthma and classroom triggers, ability to determine when to go to school with asthma symptoms, and ability to know when to contact the doctor or go to the emergency room (P <.05). Feelings about having asthma also demonstrated improvement (P <.05). No significant findings were found for knowing how much asthma medicine to take or being able to tell an adult that they are having asthma symptoms. Results of this study suggest that a collaborative partnership with a school of nursing has the potential to affect the health status of the community and provide sustainability for those activities that created the positive change. Integrating Open Airways into a nursing curriculum addresses a well-documented need for increased asthma management education for the student with asthma.