TOP 39 - Standardizing Pediatric Asthma Discharge Education: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives from Residents, Nurses, and Respiratory Therapists

Publication Number: 2790.TOP 39

Devika Jaishankar, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Allison Neeson, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Honey L. Pezzimenti, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Mount Royal, NJ, United States; Alison R.. Jean-Julien, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Jenkintown, PA, United States; Shikha Saxena, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting nearly 7 million children in the United States and accounting for 150,000 hospitalizations per year. High-quality patient education has the potential to improve asthma medication use at home and ultimately prevent rehospitalizations. In our pediatric healthcare institution, asthma education is provided to patients at the time of hospital discharge and completed by an interdisciplinary team comprised of physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists. However, this process can be highly variable without a standardized protocol in place. Little is known about these interdisciplinary team members’ perceptions of the asthma discharge education process or their confidence levels in providing asthma education.

Objective: This study aims to understand the perspectives of pediatric residents, nurses, and respiratory therapists regarding the current provision of asthma discharge education, to elucidate areas for improvement in asthma education, and to inform the future implementation of a standardized asthma education framework.

Design/Methods: Pediatric residents, nurses, and respiratory therapists at a large, academic pediatric institution in the United States were surveyed in October 2025. All respondents participate in inpatient pediatric asthma care. The survey included Likert scale, multiple choice, and open-ended response questions. A 5-point Likert scale was used to characterize respondents' confidence in providing various components of asthma education, as well as to identify which team members (i.e., residents, nurses, or respiratory therapists) should be most responsible for providing asthma discharge education to patients. Additional questions were posed regarding current facilitators and barriers to providing education and suggestions for a standardized process. Anonymized survey responses for 92 participants have been collected and will be analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests for ordinal data to compare Likert-scale responses between the interdisciplinary team members. Qualitative content analysis will also be performed to code free-text responses.