Nurses Role in Care and Treatment of Asthma

Registered and Licensed Vocational Nurses play a crucial role within the healthcare team, but particularly so for those patients with chronic conditions such as asthma. Nurses, in providing the majority of direct patient care, can directly affect patient outcomes by helping patients learn to more effectively manage asthmatic symptoms.

Educating Patients

• Nurses provide patient education, teaching patients how to identify asthmatic triggers, know when to seek medical assistance, and how to self-monitor their conditions.

Administering Medication

• Nurses can administer medications under the direction of a licensed physician or physician's assistant. This can include inhaled breathing treatments, oral medications and injectable medications such as steroids.

Measuring Lung Function

• Nurses can perform tests to measure lung function, which assists doctors in creating an appropriate treatment plan. Such assessments can include spirometry and peak flow meter tests, among others.

Creating a Written Asthma Action Plan

• Nurses work with patients (or the parents of pediatric patients) to develop a written Asthma Action Plan, which contains specific information on daily symptom management, medications, and how to monitor and control worsening symptoms.

Advocating for Patients

• Because nurses are responsible for providing much of the direct patient care in clinical settings, they can help convey patient needs, concerns and preferences to other medical professionals.