Asthma and CINCH Allergy (A2) School Nurse Expert Program

The program’s goal is to improve the management of asthma among school age children through the development and implementation of a school-based asthma nurse expert program and affiliated leadership network in Southeastern Virginia. A key feature of this program is to increase the number of school nurses who are certified asthma educators, thus providing a resident asthma & allergy expert on staff within local school systems. Another key feature is the development of a collaborative leadership network to identify problems and barriers to pediatric asthma management in the school and community with a goal of incubating ideas, and implementing solutions. Creating asthma champions and mentors within the school nursing staff of our local school systems provides a means to mobilize the school system to identify and respond to the need to manage pediatric asthma in new ways and promote the cornerstone of asthma management, education, and advocacy; the asthma action plan. The program specifically focuses on prompting increased staff, student, and parent education; implementation of supportive policies, procedures, and guidelines; and, increased school-provider communication as a means to improving asthma management. Disseminating the six GIP key messages is an integral part of the delivery of programs, tools, and methods through a variety of communication pathways within the school’s reach. The identification of best practices communication pathways with parents, students, school staff, school administration, and providers will be used to further educate the greater school nurse population in the area to increase effectiveness. All of these activities fit well with the crosscutting activities recommended by the GIP Report 3 Partners Putting Guidelines Into Action; specifically patient self education management, provider skills building, quality improvement, and communication networks.