Effectiveness of the Nursing Health Program for Mothers with Children Undergoing Bronchoscopy

Background: Foreign Body Aspiration (FBA) is considered a serious and potentially-lethal threat to the health of children aged from 6 months to 4 years. The golden standard for diagnosing and managing this condition is rigid open tube bronchoscopy. Mothers and caregivers should be informed and educated about health guidelines in order to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by the foreign body aspiration.Aims: This paper aims at evaluating the effectiveness of a nursing health program for mothers with children undergoing bronchoscopy through assessing their knowledge, practice and attitude to develop and implement the nursing health program to meet mothers needs.Method: Quasi experimental design was conducted during the period of three months in 2010 to evaluate the effectiveness of a nursing health program on a non-random convenience sample of 80 mothers selected from a governmental hospital located in Amman city, Jordan.Tools: The researchers developed an interviewing questionnaire which was used as a pre- and post test to assess knowledge, practice and attitudes of the care provided by mothers during the incident of the foreign body aspiration and after the bronchoscopy procedure. Then, the researchers developed and implemented a nursing health program followed by a post test to track changes for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the health program.Results: The most common presenting symptoms were a combination of cough (93.75%) and difficulty of breathing (81.25%). The most frequently-aspirated foreign bodies were organic material such as seeds and nuts followed by non-organic material i.e., coins accounting for (26.2%, 16.5%, 20%), respectively. There were statistical significant improvements (P 0.01) in mothers knowledge, practice, and attitude on the post-test scores.Conclusion: There is an urgent need to educate mothers with the safety precautions and chocking prevention measures to minimize the risk of FBA.