June 22, 2021 – This week the National Association of School Nurses is convening its Annual Conference virtually. It appears as if school nurses will return to an environment in the fall where COVID is less of a concern and yet, normal challenges may return with a vengeance.
As students return to school in the fall, those with allergies and asthma have been insulated from allergen and irritant (pollution) impacts because many have been wearing masks during the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, the fall, and, specifically, the early months of the new school year, are fraught with risk because of ragweed allergies and because of recently highlighted indoor air quality issues.
Help is on its ways with substantial funding in the pipeline under the Biden Administration to support increases in school nurse coverage and the School Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Act became law in early January of 2021. The purpose of the law is to enhance the safety of students with allergies and asthma in the school setting. This legislation was based on the School-based Asthma, Allergy, & Anaphylaxis Management Program or SAMPRO™. The use of DailyBreath by school nurses, administrators, teachers, students, parents, and clinicians allows the integrated care coordination sought by the law for improving health and school-related outcomes for children with asthma.
One of the insights I was provided by a school nurse was school nurses, teachers, administrators, parents, and even students often were not aware of the weather and environmental conditions that could be impactful to students with asthma in their care. Because of this insight, I was deliberate in translating the Air Quality Index into a corresponding Air Quality Flag when displaying the DailyBreath Forecast.
By providing this detail in the DailyBreath Forecast, DailyBreath supports SAMPRO™ Component 4, Environmental Asthma Plan, by providing daily monitoring of outdoor air quality conditions by zip code for schools. DailyBreath includes push notifications at key times of the day: before school or work, at lunchtime, after school, and in the evening. This helps caregivers to keep checking on student risk and the outdoor air quality at various times of the day.
Another unique feature of DailyBreath is its Community View of Recorded Flare-Ups. With this feature, you will be able to note whether your students are having symptoms around your school, perhaps while in proximity to buses, in the car pick-up line, or during recess or after school activities. DailyBreath supports SAMPRO™ Component 1, Establishing a Circle of Support, by offering each member their own personal caregiver network via the DailyBreath Friends feature. This functions as a communications network centered on the student, consisting of school nurses, teachers, clinicians, families, friends, and more. With this feature, a student may share a message with his network that he feels symptoms coming on at recess or after school. DailyBreath supports SAMPRO™ Component 3, Education for School Personnel and Students with short educational videos on asthma self-care, symptoms, triggers, and asthma management.
DailyBreath is seeking to build an asthma app that helps all stakeholders, especially those who are responsible for the approximately 5 million school-aged children with asthma, to achieve improved asthma outcomes by delivering environmental insights. We encourage school nurses to check out DailyBreath by downloading it from the App Store or get it on Google Play.