Teaching school teachers to recognize respiratory distress in asthmatic children.

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate that school teachers can be taught to recognize respiratory distress in asthmatic children. METHODOLOGY: Forty-five school teachers received a one-hour educational session on childhood asthma. Each education session consisted of two portions, video footage of asthmatic children exhibiting respiratory distress and didactic. Pre- and posttests on general asthma knowledge, signs of respiratory distress on video footage and comfort level with asthma knowledge and medications were administered. RESULTS: General asthma knowledge median scores increased significantly, pre = 60% correct, post = 70% (p < 0.0001). The ability to visually recognize respiratory distress also significantly improved (pre-median = 66.7% correct, post = 88.9% [p < 0.0001]). Teachers' comfort level with asthma knowledge and medications improved. CONCLUSIONS: Using video footage, school teachers can be taught to visually recognize respiratory distress in asthmatic children. Improvement in visual recognition of respiratory distress was greater than improvement in didactic asthma information.