Understanding and managing asthma is an ongoing challenge for many CPN students. Mary Ford Elementary school nurse, Charlene Barbot, expressed to CPN her desire to empower her students suffering from asthma with self-management techniques.
In response, CPN partnered with the American Lung Association to offer the Open Airways Program at Mary Ford.
Eight students participated, meeting twice a week for three weeks, to learn how to detect asthma warning signs, and avoid individual asthma triggers using a fun and interactive approach.
Ms. Barbot said of a particular first grade student, “He was just diagnosed this year after a crisis at school that necessitated a call to EMS, and is getting more comfortable with how to use his inhalers and how to identify crisis before it is extreme. He is coming to me sooner rather than later to get his inhaler in order to prevent distress.”
Many thanks to CPN intern Jessica Hodges, who will graduate this spring with a degree in Health Promotion from Charleston Southern University, and the American Lung Association’s intern Jamelia Graham, Public Health major at the College of Charleston, for facilitating this potentially life-saving series!
