Riverside County Teachers Trained on Childhood Asthma

Over 200 Riverside County educators recently spent 30 minutes at an in-service training program experiencing what it might be like to have an asthma attack. Every teacher in the room was given a coffee stirrer and asked to try breathing through it in order to help them feel what their asthmatic students experience during an attack. Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) staff from the School of Public Health and the Loma Linda University Medical Center taught the program. “I never imagined that it was so hard to breathe,” said one participant. “I never knew what the asthmatic kids in my class go through.” Staff from the LLUH School of Public Health asthma program — a First 5 Riverside-funded program with a focus on increasing awareness on asthma and its management — were teaching a group of Riverside County educators on childhood asthma: its prevalence in Riverside County schools, the vulnerability of asthmatic children, and what to do when students suffer an attack. Some teachers were too familiar with the experience. “I have asthma, and it’s like drowning,” said another. Lisa Schifano, development specialist for the Riverside County Office of Education, organized the training, designed to get teachers up to speed on new programs and initiatives funded by state and federal grants — including the LLUH asthma program. LLUH’s program was conceived as a comprehensive intervention for childhood asthma — with parent and teacher trainings, educational puppet shows and plays, and environmental assessments done at preschools, day care centers, Head Starts, etc., to help make them asthma-friendly. The LLUH asthma program is under the supervision of Rhonda Spencer-Hwang, DrPH, assistant professor, School of Public Health, Center for Community Resilience. At the training, LLUH staff, including a group of pediatric resident physicians, held up inhalers and nebulizers used to treat children during an asthma attack and demonstrated how to administer asthma medication, which parents provide for their children and keep on hand at the school in case of an attack. Schools store the meds, note how much is left in an inhaler, keep track of expiration dates, and make sure everything is correctly labeled. Riverside County Office of Education Development Specialist Renee Kapsner said the training helped educators understand the dangers and prevalence of asthma in their schools. “The response from staff evaluations was positive, and we see the need to hear that information on an ongoing basis.” The group at the training was divided into six teams made up of teachers, LLUH staff, and medical residents. Each team read out the asthma attack scenario, practiced the provided action plan, and described the process as it developed. Staff on each team acted as “crash test dummies,” letting teachers put on the masks, assemble the breathing equipment, and apply the techniques. However, safety dictated that no actual medication was administered. The simulation began with volunteers from each team responding to a child’s asthma attack. Using the action plan demonstrated earlier, the educator followed the instructions and explained how to proceed as the scenario changed. In the scenario, the child initially responds to the treatment, but then suddenly gets worse. A brief discussion ensued in which the audience was asked, by show of hands, whether 911 should be called or the child given a second dose. Depending on the audience’s decision, the correct answer is given and the logic behind the answer is explained. In the scenario provided, the “child” is given a second dose; however, the correct response will differ on a case-by-case basis. All of this takes place in approximately two minutes, the maximum amount of time that a child can normally be without oxygen without risking brain damage (for adults, the window is three minutes). Participants were enthusiastic about the training. “The program provides the teachers with the skills necessary to identify asthma attacks,” one said. At the same time, the LLUH program tries to lessen teachers’ fears of administering a child’s critical asthma medication. “Often, people fear what they don’t understand, and this is especially true when it comes to a child having an asthma attack at school,” said Marco Pasco-Rubio, health educator with the Loma Linda University Health asthma program, and senior research assistant, School of Public Health, Center for Community Resilience. “So this is a great opportunity to increase knowledge and awareness about asthma and at the same time to address those fears.”