Teaching school teachers to recognize respiratory distress in asthmatic children.
OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate that school teachers can be taught to recognize respiratory distress in asthmatic children.


METHODS
Forty-five school teachers received a one-hour educational session on childhood asthma. Each education session consisted of two portions, video footage of asthmatic children exhibiting respiratory distress and didactic. Pre- and posttests on general asthma knowledge, signs of respiratory distress on video footage and comfort level with asthma knowledge and medications were administered.


RESULTS
General asthma knowledge median scores increased significantly, pre = 60% correct, post = 70% (p < 0.0001). The ability to visually recognize respiratory distress also significantly improved (pre-median = 66.7% correct, post = 88.9% [p < 0.0001]). Teachers' comfort level with asthma knowledge and medications improved.


CONCLUSIONS
Using video footage, school teachers can be taught to visually recognize respiratory distress in asthmatic children. Improvement in visual recognition of respiratory distress was greater than improvement in didactic asthma information.
Sapien
Robert E
RE
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001, USA. rsapien@salud.unm.edu
Fullerton-Gleason
L
L
Allen
N
N
D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012572:School Health Services; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*