The Challenge
Asthma is the most chronic disease of childhood, and Vermont has the 15th highest rate of childhood asthma in the nation. Rural children and those experiencing poverty bear a disproportionate burden of the disease, which can curtail physical activity, success in school, and can necessitate frequent urgent care. Recommended daily therapies are often complex and difficult to monitor as children move from home to school to activities.
How might families, school nurses, primary care providers work together to improve asthma care in our rural areas?
The Solution
UVM’s Larner College of Medicine and College of Nursing and Health Sciences is working with the Vermont School Nurses Association and other providers to explore whether school-based asthma therapy (SBAT) might help reduce asthma symptoms, emergency department visits, and missed school days. It more directly involves school nurses in delivering daily asthma medications to children.
The partnership will work together to build consensus for the SBAT approach to asthma care in Vermont. They are researching barriers that exist for the adoption of this approach in rural communities. Finally, the team will develop a Vermont State Toolkit for School-Based Asthma Therapy for statewide use.
The Partnership
Dr. Stephen Teach, Larner College of Medicine, is a pediatric emergency medicine physician. Dr. Teach helped the District of Columbia successfully implement SBAT. He is the UVM lead for the partnership.
Other partners include:
UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Vermont State School Nurses Association
Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians
Vermont Child Health Improvement Program
Vermont State Asthma Program of the Department of Public Health
Green Mountain Care Board
Project Details
| Community Partners: | Vermont State School Nurses Association Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians Vermont Child Health Improvement Program Vermont State Asthma Program at the Vermont Department of Health School liaisons from the VDH Office for Local Health |
| UVM Partners: | |
| Amount: | $10,000 (Capacity Grant) |
| Primary Region: | Statewide |
| Focus Areas: | Healthy Ecosystems, Community Schools, Access to Health Care in Rural Areas |