An Assessment of Asthmatic Knowledge of School Teachers

Kim, Woo Kyung; Lee, Hae Ran; Yoon, Hae Sun

Abstract

PURPOSE
School-age children spend more than half of the day at school and teachers or school nurses are responsible for managing students with asthma during school hours. Thus, the teachers' knowledge about asthma is very important for the care of asthmatic school children.
METHODS
Total 159 teachers were asked to fill out questionnaire on their knowledge about asthma and their personal profiles. The survey was administered by mail. The questionnaire includes 17 items about pathophysiology, symptoms, precipitating factors, treatment, care and prognosis, which were to be answered by either 'true' or 'false'. The correct or incorrect answers were examined data was statistically analyzed by SPSS.
RESULTS
Most teachers were in their thirties (54.7%) and years of teaching experience were from six to fifteen years (50.4%). The teachers who experienced asthma students were 23.6%, and 12.6% were either asthma patients or had asthma patients in their family. They had knowledge about precipitating factors of asthma, but, the knowledge was not correct in detail. Only 34% teachers knew what to do and where to contact in case of asthma attack among the students. Teachers' demographic and professional factors did not affect the knowledge about asthma, except their working experience as school nurses and/or with school nursing asthmatic students.
CONCLUSION
The survey results demonstrated that their teachers' knowledge about asthma was not sufficient enough to take good care of the asthmatic students at school including emergency management. Asthma education for the school teachers is required and efficient educational programs for the teachers should be developed.