Teacher initiated improvement of asthma policy in schools

To assess whether information about asthma acquired by individual teachers, following attendance at an inservice seminar, would be communicated to other school staff, and whether policies about asthma management would be subsequently developed in schools.

A telephone interview was conducted of 50 primary school teachers in the Hunter Region who were selected randomly from those who had represented their school at an inservice seminar about asthma.

All 48 respondents had provided feedback to their colleagues, mostly at a staff meeting. After the seminar the number of schools with a written policy about the management of asthma had increased from 1 to 20. Initially the school's first aid kits contained a bronchodilator inhaler in 25 schools (increasing to 43 after the seminar), a spacer device in six schools (increasing to 47) and written guidelines for management of an asthma attack in seven schools (increasing to 32). Teachers from four schools indicated that all school staff knew how to recognize an acute attack prior to the seminar compared with 22 schools afterwards. Before the seminar 18 schools asked parents to supply written instructions for the management of their children at school but this increased to 44 after the seminar.

A programme of one-off seminars attended by one teacher from each primary school resulted in large increases in the proportion of schools with appropriate policies for the management of asthma in the school environment.