Key Points
1. Major challenges to preventive asthma care are encountered by inner-city children and include family and patient attitudes and beliefs, lack of access to quality medical care, psychosocial and environmental factors.
2. Pediatric nurses can impact these challenges by identifying parental attitudes and beliefs about asthma medications, parental depression and stress, and environmental exposures. Remediation of these challenges may require referral to community resources such as asthma specialist, community mental health clinics, and smoking cessation clinics.
3. Alternate or supplemental health care sites such as school-based asthma programs, community or mobile health care clinics or disease case management programs may enhance access to preventive care for high risk inner city children