BreatheRight! – Program Description​​​​​​​​​​​
 

After careful review and consideration of existing and proposed evidence-based programs for African American children affected by asthma, BreatheRight! was selected from an adaptation of Train the Trainer Event for Asthma Education due to 1) solid-evidentiary base, 2) well-designed program evaluation plan, 3) realistic time frame for pre-program key tasks completion, 4) important goals and objectives for BreatheRight! target audience. 
 

Train the Trainer Event for Asthma Education is designed as a one-time yearly event open to all parents of Indianapolis recruited from flyers posted in district health offices, clinic, elevators of the health department and distributed to IPS Nurses and Head Start schools.  While this can be a very effective method for recruitment, in order to target the population who needs the program most, it may be more effective to direct mail flyers and registration to prospective participants selected from existing diagnoses from IPS medical records (McEwan et al., 1998).  Also, targeting prospective participants through Parent Association Newsletters will make sure all parents receive information and registration instructions directly, even those whose children were not selected from medical records.  Another limitation of a one-time event means more people to accommodate at one time, which can lead to budgetary concerns when finding a location large enough for the event whereas working directly with five of the highest asthma rated elementary schools, numbers at each event will be smaller and using each school’s auditorium will be free for use for the event, parking accessible and familiar to the participants since their children go to school there.  Also, Train the Trainer Event for Asthma Education uses doctors, pharmacists and allergists for their speakers whereas BreatheRight! will provide better outcomes from the program by professionally training the selected school nurses to be the speakers at the events, so they will be familiar to the parents and also will have the proper training for future asthmatic incident’s that may occur in school.
 

BreatheRight! Task Force will work closely with the Asthma Alliance of Indianapolis as well as the Principals and School Nurses of Indianapolis Public Elementary Schools to recruit participants and train nurses to be effective and certified speakers at the program events. 
Selecting Schools:  IPS elementary schools will report to BreatheRight! Task Force the number of confirmed asthma diagnoses of their current African American students based on their school medical records (McEwan et al., 1998).  The five schools with the highest numbers of students with asthma diagnoses will be selected and the Lead task force member will contact the Principals of each school to arrange a date for the event in May 2013 when the school auditorium is available and arrange staff to assist in setup. 

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