title: Short intervention can improve knowledge about childhood asthma in nursing staff.
abstract: Twenty-nine community or hospital-based general nurses from the Upper Hunter Valley attended a 3-hr seminar on asthma and completed a previously validated asthma knowledge questionnaire before and 6 weeks after the seminar. The mean initial score (maximum possible 31) was 20.6 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.1-22.0], which increased at follow-up to 26.2 (95% CI 25.0-27.3). Only 5 of 29 nurses scored 24 or more initially compared with 17 of 21 at follow-up. Even after the seminar, the nurses had major deficiencies in knowledge about preventive medication and the management of exercise-induced asthma.
authors.affiliation: University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hazell
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Halliday
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires