School Nurses' Available Education to Manage Children with Asthma at Schools: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Problem: Despite reports that asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism and the third leading cause of hospitalization in children under 15 years, little is known about how school nurses are educated and trained to manage asthma in schools. The current scoping review sought to describe the published literature on available asthma education programs for school nurses to manage asthma in schoolchildren. Eligibility criteria: This paper used Arksey and O' Malley's (2005) scoping review framework to identify the existing literature on the education and training received by school nurses to provide evidence-based practice care to school students with asthma, aged 5 to 18 years. Sample: A search strategy was developed and implemented in 6 electronic databases including PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO, from 1980 to 2020. A total of 1012 citations were identified, 27 full-text articles were retrieved and assessed for eligibility, and eight studies were finally reviewed and synthesized. Results: The educational programs throughout four interventional studies consisted of a one-time training session, followed by a practical demonstration. Four out of 8 included studies assessed school nurses' previous exposure to an asthma educational programs through needs assessment surveys. The education delivery methods need to be synchronized with global technological advances and the availability of smartphones. Conclusion:There is a need to highlight school nurses' asthma educational needs and the preferred ways of delivering asthma programs to school nurses. The review also called for ongoing skill and knowledge assessment strategies to ensure the delivery of evidence-based practice care. Implications: There is a need to standardize asthma education programs delivered to school nurses. Future empirical research is recommended to investigate and evaluate such programs.

Effect of motivational interviewing on treatment adherence and self‐efficacy of adolescents with asthma: A randomized controlled trial

“…Bender reviewed 10 studies who investigated the contract, in which treatment adherence was reported as 19%-53% (Bender, 2016), while adherence less than 50% indicates low adherence (Jentzsch et al, 2017). Some previous studies reported that adolescents with asthma suffer from a number of problems, including a recent study (Al Kindi et al, 2021) which reported that Children with asthma have more susceptibility for physical and emotional disabilities, and that their academic achievement is more likely to decline. Almost including 36,000 children estimated who miss school every day due to the disease symptoms, putting them at greater risk for poor academic performance and poor intellectual development.…”

The current state of international research on the effectiveness of school nurses in promoting the health of children and adolescents: An overview of reviews

“…Most international research on school nurse interventions addressing the three aspects of school health originated in Anglo-Saxon countries [ 13 – 15 ] where the school nurse was first introduced and where most research has been conducted. Many of these studies evaluate school-nurse led interventions and refer to the number of days absent due to medical conditions [ 13 , 16 ], health risk factors such as obesity [ 17 , 18 ] and cigarette consumption [ 19 , 20 ], children with asthma symptoms [ 21 , 22 ], mental health conditions [ 23 , 24 ], the management of chronic diseases [ 3 , 25 ] or preventing various forms of child abuse [ 26 – 28 ]. Apart from more positive health outcomes for children, the support provided by the school nurse may lessen the burden on teachers confronted with such problems in the classroom [ 29 – 31 ].…”

Knowledge and experience of Primary Education teachers regarding childhood asthma: mixed study

“…Children with asthma miss more school days when compared to children who do not have the disease, putting academic and intellectual performance at risk ( 5 ) . Besides the problem of school absenteeism, when without severe symptoms, children with asthma regularly attend school and spend a significant amount of time in that environment.…”