Thedora Hernandez's research while affiliated with Texas Department of State Health Services and other places

The Asthma 101 training, developed by the American Lung Association, was offered in 2009 to 93 senior bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students. It was offered again in 2010 to 65 senior BSN students enrolled at the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas. The training included both a pretest and posttest to evaluate changes in level of knowledge. Nursing students who were trained in 2009 participated in an asthma study offering asthma education to local elementary and middle schools students and their parents. The goal of Asthma 101 training was to educate nursing students so that they could provide general information about asthma to elementary school children and their parents, which could be done in a variety of settings such as health fairs and in classrooms. Test results for those who received the 2009 training showed an improvement in their knowledge about asthma. More than 95% of participants were very or somewhat satisfied with the Asthma 101 training. Test results in 2010 showed a significant improvement in participants’ knowledge in 2 areas: taking asthma medications to prevent an asthma episode (P = .001) and occurrence of asthma symptoms (P = .016). Two questions of statistical significance related to the use of medications and asthma episode demonstrated that nursing students had increased their knowledge in these areas. These findings suggest that health professionals can acquire additional knowledge from a brief yet focused training, such as the Asthma 101 training outlined in this article.

A survey was conducted to assess asthma and the implementation of individual health plans for asthma (IHPA), also known as asthma action plans, in Texas schools. Most of the respondents (91.7%) were school nurses. Forty-four percent of respondents indicated that their school district maintained a written policy requiring implementation of IHPA for students with asthma, while 61.5% implemented IHPA for students with asthma. More than 93% of respondents from school districts with written policies indicated that IHPA were implemented for students with asthma. However, only 36.6% of respondents from school districts without written policies indicated that IHPA were implemented. More than 38% of respondents indicated that asthma education was not provided at their school. Texas schools should be encouraged to adopt written policies requiring implementation of IHPA for all students with asthma, and school nurses should be encouraged to implement asthma education in their schools.