The performance of the school nurses' asthma management behaviors in relationship to their asthma knowledge, asthma attitude and asthma self-efficacy

More than 10 million children in the United States under the age of 18 years have been diagnosed with asthma. Asthma, the leading chronic childhood illness, results in missed school days, emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Since children are in school at least 6 hours a day, the school nurse is in the optimal position to intervene and impact asthma outcomes.;A descriptive correlational study investigated the performance of the school nurse's asthma management behaviors in relationship to asthma knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, barriers, and rating of importance of asthma management behaviors. A randomized sample of nurses from the National Association of School Nurses completed questionnaires via survey monkey. SPSS-19 was used for analysis. Significant results indicated that asthma attitude, self-efficacy and rating of importance of asthma management behaviors were associated with asthma management behavior performance. Years in school nursing and fulltime work status were related to self-efficacy. Age, years in nursing and school nursing were related to performance of asthma management behaviors. The higher the rating of importance of an asthma management behavior, the more likely the school nurse was likely to perform the behavior (p<.05).;The evidence provided by this study indicates that school nurses are knowledgeable about asthma. Despite multiple barriers to asthma management being identified by school nurses, these had no statistically significant influence on the performance of asthma management behaviors. This study associates higher levels of self-efficacy with the performance of asthma management behaviors by the school nurse, indicating the importance of strengthening school nurses' self-efficacy in asthma management. By understanding the factors that influence the performance of asthma management behaviors by the school nurse, interventions can be implemented that would increase these behaviors, leading to better outcomes for the student with asthma.