Improving teacher comfort and self-efficacy in asthma management

Abstract

Background: Asthma is common among urban school-age children. Though teachers should be prepared to assist children during an asthma attack, studies show they lack self-efficacy in managing asthma.

Objective: To assess feasibility of implementing an asthma workshop for elementary school teachers, describe themes of questions raised, and determine workshop’s impact on teachers’ comfort and self-efficacy in asthma management.

Methods: We developed and implemented an asthma workshop for teachers from four Bronx elementary schools (2012–2014). Teachers completed a questionnaire evaluating their comfort and self-efficacy in asthma management before and after the workshop. Questions asked during the sessions were recorded and analyzed for themes. Paired t-test and McNemar tests compared before/after scores.

Results: 65 out of 70 teachers (92.9%) participated in the educational sessions. Teachers asked questions about school policy for inhalers, medication administration guidelines, and physical activity and asthma. 64/65 (98.5%) teachers completed pre/post surveys (mean age 39.7 years; mean years at the school 8.0). Post-intervention, more teachers reported knowing how to manage an asthma attack (93.8% vs. 64.1%, p < .0001); and felt comfortable assessing (50.8% vs. 30.8%, p = 0.019) and handling an asthma attack (52.3% vs. 33.8%, p = .023). The overall mean self-efficacy score increased post-intervention (43.0 vs. 38.1, p < .0001), as did 8/12 individual self-efficacy items. Post-workshop, 95.3% of teachers agreed that teacher in-service asthma education should be done annually.

Conclusions: An asthma workshop was successfully implemented in the school setting and improved teacher comfort and self-efficacy in managing asthma. Annual training may improve teachers’ confidence in assisting students with asthma.

Keywords:

• Elementary schools
• workshop
• asthma
• inner city
• children

Clinical Trial Registration:

• NCT01873755, clinicaltrials.gov

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Florinda Islamovic for her assistance with data collection for this study.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (grant number 5K23HD065742).