Children's experiences of a participation approach to asthma education

• Published in: Journal of clinical nursing 2013-04, Vol.22 (7-8), p.996-1004
• Main Authors: Trollvik, Anne, Ringsberg, Karin C, Silén, Charlotte
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-Asthmatic Agents - therapeutic use; Asthma; Asthma - drug therapy; Asthma - psychology; Asthma - therapy; asthma; child; empowerment; health education; health promotion; learning; participation; qualitative; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children & youth; Content analysis; empowerment; Health education; health promotion; Humans; Learning; Medical and Health Sciences; Medical sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Miscellaneous; Nursing; Nursing care; participation; Patient Education as Topic - methods; Patient Participation; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; qualitative
• ISSN: 0962-1067; 1365-2702
• DOI: 10.1111/jocn.12069

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the participation and responses of children to an asthma education programme that was developed with the aid of children with asthma. In a larger perspective, the aim was to understand how educational approaches can be designed to help children learn to live and cope with asthma. BACKGROUND: A literature search showed that programmes where children participate in the development of educational materials or programmes are lacking. DESIGN: An exploratory descriptive design was chosen to get an in-depth understanding of the communication and collaboration between children and healthcare personnel. METHODS: Data were collected through observations, tape recordings of the conversations and notes of the interactions between the children and the healthcare personnel and analysed by content analysis. RESULTS: The significance of the asthma education programme emerged in four themes: (i) children are learning from each other: in a positive learning climate, the children were able to express emotional themes that they may not have communicated before; (ii) children are learning through an interaction with the educational material: the children discussed stories and pictures in a fellow interplay: when one child expressed something, another child would recognise it and continue the story; (iii) children are learning from their interaction with healthcare personnel and vice versa: adjusting the vocabulary according to the children's experiences, they were met on their level of understanding; and (iv) children can express and discuss their understanding of asthma. CONCLUSIONS: The unique aspect about this programme is that it emanates from children's perspectives. The children were actively involved and learnt from each other's shared knowledge and experiences, which is a good source of meaningful learning and empowering processes. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Future educational approaches should use children's perspectives in a manner in which their questions, thoughts and daily challenges are emphasised.