Abstract:

To best educate pediatric patients with asthma and their caregivers it is imperative that frontline hospital nursing staff be well educated in all aspects of asthma. Effective patient education is the cornerstone of wellness and decreased hospital admissions for people with chronic conditions. Variability in the quality of such education significantly impacts the health maintenance and quality of life of children living with asthma, a chronic condition. Increasingly, the pressures of limited time and resource utilization by Registered Nurses (RNs) delivering asthma education to pediatric patients and their families plays a significant role in how well concepts such as avoidance or modification of asthma triggers and correct medication device operation are understood. Unfortunately, these education delivery deficiencies and knowledge gaps are only uncovered during a usually preventable hospitalization. A recent review of asthma education at one institution that was provided by hospital pediatric RNs, Respiratory Therapists and Pulmonary MDs to inpatients revealed that RNs delivered 0.1% of general asthma education and 0% of device teaching.

The aim of the Asthma Champion Program is to create an enduring asthma education program for hospital pediatric RNs. In so doing, their teaching efficacy and self-confidence will increase while producing a deep, measurable impact on their patients’ positive asthma management. Presently, no formal asthma education program is offered. An innovative, multimodal learning opportunity will be piloted to one to two staff RNs per shift that volunteer for training in asthma education and who will be distinguished as Asthma Champions. First, current knowledge about asthma pathophysiology, triggers and medication devices as well as confidence in this knowledge will be assessed. They will then complete an interactive learning module designed to improve understanding of asthma and intensify ability to apply this deepened knowledge to clinical situations. This model illustrates the “pretraining principle”, the link between prior knowledge and better learning in an interactive multimodal environment. (Moreno,R. and Mayer,R. 2007) These asthma education exemplars will provide direct, exceptional patient/family evidence-based education and serve as a recognized shift resource for their colleagues. The ultimate goal is for every hospital pediatric RN to complete this training. Module enhancements include incorporating interactivity, gamification, self-assessments with data capture and digital badging. Based on findings from this initial Asthma Champion group, the program will be offered to other academic medical centers as well as hospitals and schools. This program will serve as a train-the-trainer paradigm for other chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension and other patient populations like premature, adult and geriatric.

Integrating three videos of simulated patient/family asthma education encounters that demonstrate an issue with pathophysiology, triggers and medication devices enhance the module. Animating graphics and linking to the Center for Disease Control and American Lung Association websites provide learners with updated, best practices in asthma care by promoting cognitive and behavioral activity. Video quiz, text tree and look and find are the three self-assessment formats that will be used throughout this module. Learner reflection in the form of confidence assessments and explanatory feedback follows each.

Keywords:

Multimodal learning, pretraining principle, train-the-trainer.