A virtual workshop for the health service providers in the public primary, preparatory and secondary schools was organised by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), participating in Asthma-Friendly Schools programme for the academic year 2022-2023.
Approximately 300 of health cadres participated in the workshop through which Asthma-Friendly Schools programme had been introduced. The workshop highlights include application and follow-up mechanism and lessons learned from the previous experiences.
Other vital topics include asthma pathogens, symptoms, identification of its triggers, avoiding it inside schools, methods of using spirometry device and asthma medications to properly train the students with asthma in schools, as well as introducing asthma, prevention and ways to deal with it in school campuses.
The Head of the non-communicable diseases section at the MoPH, Dr. Kholoud Al Mutawa, said that MoPH cooperates with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Primary Health Corporation (PHC), Sidra Medicine and all partners for the sake of optimising the life quality of students with asthma in schools to ensure their obtainment of educational experience similar to the healthy students, reduce the rate of school absence among students with Asthma and improve their academic performance.
Dr Al Mutawa pointed out that Asthma-Friendly Schools programme is implemented within this framework in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. For her part, the Head of Asthma Friendly School in Qatar Programme at MoPH, Dr. Maya Al Sheiba, indicated that the programme represents a unique educational experience that aims to allow students with asthma to capitalise on the medical potential available and live in normal social environment that primarily helps develop their skills and improves their quality of life.
In addition, the Supervisor of School Nurses at PHC, Dr. Musab Fadlallah, said that such workshops contribute to upgrading the capabilities of the nursing cadres and lending them the updated information related to diagnosing and treating the students with asthma, adding that the training programme targets all nursing cadres in all primary, preparatory and secondary schools.
For his part, the Senior Attending Physician at Sidra Medicine, Dr. Mehdi Adeli, said that Asthma Friendly Schools programme is one of the distinctive and ambitious programmes which is aimed at comprehending the disease and its dimensions, including methods of disease management through determining and documenting the cases of students with asthma in schools involved in the programme and provide the swift access to medications, in addition to drawing up a mechanism to treat the cases detected in school-wide exacerbations of asthma, determine and reduce the triggers of asthma attack in school environment.
He pointed out that students with asthma will be trained in schools by male and female nurses on the methods of proper use of medications and spirometry device and ways to deal with the triggers of asthma in their schools and homes, as well as raising the awareness of over 50,000 students on the core principles of Asthma disease, such as pathogens, its symptoms and identify its triggers to be avoided in schools campus.
