Evidence-Based Practice Asthma Education in Primary Care

Approved May 2017by the faculty of UMKC in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing PracticeAsthma affects more than 300 million people across the globe. The financial burden impacts individuals and their families as well as communities and health care systems. Although asthma education is a fundamental component for asthma care and management, self management education is insufficiently offered within primary care. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to provide multi-faceted, evidence-based, educational interventions to asthma patients to decrease acute healthcare resource utilization and strengthen asthma-related control and subsequent quality of life. Education on self-management practices, return demonstration technique, and provision of an asthma action plan conveyed through motivational interviewing were components of the education. This pilot quasi-experimental project, pre- and post-test design, included eight, mild to severe persistent asthmatics across the lifespan at a family medicine clinic. Outcomes measured were emergency department and urgent care visits as well as asthma-related symptoms using the Asthma Control Test. Results were not statistically significant with a sample size of eight participants; though there was a significant decrease in emergency department or urgent care visits after the evidence-based education. The secondary outcome of asthma control and subsequent quality of life revealed marked improvement in overall post-intervention Asthma Control Test scores. With a solid foundation of self-care education as well as long-term management, the burden of asthma can begin to alleviate within the United States society