ON DEMAND 2024 APRN Midwest Conference - Addressing the Social Determinants of Health Through an Asthma Trigger Assessment Program & Asthma Management Guidelines Update

Asthma is a chronic condition that affects 1 in 12 people in the United States. Asthma causes nearly 10 million provider visits each year in the US. Certain things trigger or worsen asthma symptoms, such as pollen, exercise, viral infections, or changing weather. Asthma patients need both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions. Pharmacologic interventions can include SABAs, leukotriene modifiers, ICS, combination ICS/LABAs, muscarinic antagonists, and biologics. Nonpharmacologic interventions can include trigger identification and remediation as well as smoking cessation. This presentation will address diagnosing asthma and both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions for asthma management. The presentation will review staging of asthma as mild intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, and severe persistent; it will also discuss nuances with managing exercise induce bronchospasm (EIB). The management guidelines will be reviewed highlighting updates such as the recommendation for all asthma patients to have access to an ICS. The presentation will then review creating asthma action plans (AAPs) and teaching patients and families how to use action plans. The update will include proper use of inhaler devices and spacers. I will discuss in detail identification and remediation of asthma triggers within the home based on years of experience as an asthma home visiting provider based out of East St Louis, IL. This section will discuss how the social determinants of health (SDOH) impact patients with asthma, and highlight the importance of home visiting programs in areas significantly impacted by the SDOH. 

• Comprehensive Asthma Management: Equip healthcare providers with the skills to diagnose asthma accurately and implement a comprehensive management plan, including the staging of asthma from mild intermittent to severe persistent. This objective will cover both pharmacologic treatments—such as SABAs, leukotriene modifiers, ICS, and biologics—and nonpharmacologic strategies like trigger identification and smoking cessation.

• Asthma Education and Action Planning: Develop healthcare providers' abilities to create and teach effective Asthma Action Plans (AAPs), ensuring patients and families are proficient in using these plans along with inhaler devices and spacers. This objective will also emphasize the integration of social determinants of health into asthma care, particularly the role of home visiting programs in managing asthma in communities heavily impacted by these determinants.

Learning Outcome Evaluation: Participants will state one thing they learned from the program and how they will implement it into their practice. 

The Illinois Nurses Foundation and the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing jointly provided this program.

To earn contact hours, learners must watch the entire webinar and submit an evaluation to receive the digital certificate after the session.

There are no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies for those involved with the ability to control the content of this activity