What do nurses and residents know about childhood asthma?
OBJECTIVES: To assess residents’ and pediatric nurses’ basic knowledge of childhood asthma and to identify areas needing educational reinforcement. DESIGN: Survey using a validated self-administered questionnaire containing 25 true-false and six short open-ended questions. PARTICIPANTS: Pediatric residents and family medicine residents who were on rotation at a tertiary care pediatric hospital over a six-month period, and pediatric nurses on duty in the emergency department, on the wards and on the pediatric intensive care unit over a month period. RESULTS: The participation rate was 80% (28 of 35) of pediatric residents, 89% (33 of 37) of family medicine residents, and 50% (81 of 163) of pediatric nurses. The mean score (+/- standard deviation) on the 31-point questionnaire was 27.7+/-1.8 for pediatric residents, 25.5+/-3.6 for family medicine residents, and 22.3+/-3.8 for pediatric nurses (ANOVA, P<0.001). Most (at least 75%) participants correctly identified bronchospasm and airway
