Evaluating the impact of staff education on asthma first-aid knowledge and first-aid skills performance in primary schools.

Abstract

Background. Education which specifically targets the knowledge and skills required for the treatment of an acute severe exacerbation of asthma otherwise known as asthma first aid (AFA), is required by a broad range of people especially those entrusted with the care of a child with asthma. The effectiveness of AFA training should be assessed through both the knowledge and the skills which are required to administer AFA. Methods Semi- structured interviews with staff at primary schools were conducted to establish how current asthma management policies were implemented. A pre-post study was performed to assess the effect on knowledge and skills of an online asthma education session. An open label, three-arm, parallel-group repeated measures study was then performed to compare two AFA training programs. Education via a didactic presentation alone (arm 1), was compared to scenario based training alone (arm 2). These were also compared to a combination of a didactic presentation and scenario based training (arm 3). Results. Analysis of school asthma policies revealed deficiencies in AFA training requirements and availability of rescue medication within the school. Our pre-post study showed that asthma education delivered online resulted in only 29% of participants were deemed competent to administer AFA. In our three-arm, parallel-group repeated measures study, there was a significant difference in AFA skills and AFA competency between those arms who received baseline scenario based training (arm 2 &3), versus those who did not (arm 1) (p<0.001). No significant differences in AFA knowledge were found between the arms. Conclusion. Asthma management policies at a macro level need to be tightened to ensure adequate safeguards are in place for children with asthma. AFA training should include a scenario based training component.