Abstract

Asthma and allergies are the chief cause of chronic disease among children. The ability to properly manage asthma and allergies in the school setting requires a high level of coordination between the school district, the family, and the healthcare provider. Due to budget cuts, administrative issues, and legislation, schools often have reduced capability to employ school nurses. Consequently, students with health concerns are often managed by unlicensed assistive personnel who have minimal training. In response to this identified gap in care, the School Based Asthma and Allergy Program was developed. The first aim of the program was to train unlicensed assistive personnel in the management of students with asthma and allergies to increase disease knowledge as well as self-efficacy. The second aim was to provide parents with an educational packet that included a request for a prescriptive asthma or allergy emergency action plan. The third aim was to support sustainability by informing current school health policy. Findings suggest that a coordinated approach promotes improved self-efficacy and disease knowledge of unlicensed assistive personnel, delivers an effective protocol to guide school personnel in decision making with submitted student action plans on file, and informs school health policy. Administrators and health professionals in school districts with adequate or low school nurse-to-student ratios can look to the School Based Asthma and Allergy Program as an effective coordinated approach.

Author Details

Florence Viveen Dood, DNP, MSN, BSN, RN

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Other

Research Approach

Translational Research/Evidence-based Practice

Keywords:

Asthma, Allergies, Schools, Asthma Action Plans, School Nurses, School Health, Unlicensed Assistive Personnel

Advisor

Linda Matheson

Second Advisor

Lydia L. Forsythe

Third Advisor

Lisa Singleterry

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Capella University

Degree Year

2016

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

Date of Issue

2017-01-10

Full Text of Presentation

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