A Partnership in Treating Childhood Asthma

A Partnership in Treating Childhood Asthma
Asthma affects approximately 10.1% of children living in the United States, and continues to be the most common chronic childhood illness (“Strategies,” 2002). Some risk factors that account for this startling percentage of children with asthma include age, heredity, gender, children of young mothers under age twenty, smoking, ethnicity (African American are at greatest risk), previous life threatening attacks, lack of access to medical care, psychological/psychosocial problems, underdiagnosis, and undertreatment (Hockenberry, 2003). The nurse plays a vital part in identifying modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors, and educates both parent and child on effective ways to control unwanted asthmatic attacks through self-care education and participation in asthma management programs.
The responsibility of caring for a child with asthma should be shared equally between the adult caregiver (i.e., parent, relative, or teacher) and chi...