Qatar's MoPH Organizes Workshop for Health Service Providers in Asthma-Friendly Schools

Doha, October 24 (QNA) - The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) organized a virtual workshop for the health service providers in the public primary, preparatory and secondary schools participating in Asthma-Friendly Schools program for the academic year 2022-2023 that was applied this year in all public schools across the State of Qatar of different academic levels. Approximately 300 of health cadres participated in the workshop through which Asthma-Friendly Schools program had been introduced, including its application and follow-up mechanism, lessons learned from the previous experiences, in addition to several vital topics, such as 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 Ministry of Public Health 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 optimizing 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, pointing out that Asthma-Friendly Schools program 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 Program Dr. Maya Al Sheiba at MoPH indicated that the program represents a unique educational experience that aims to allow students with Asthma to capitalize on the medical potential available and live in normal social environment that primarily helps develop their skills and improves their life quality, 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 program targets all nursing cadres in all primary, preparatory and secondary schools. For his part, the Senior Attending Physician at Sidra Medicine Dr. Mehdi Adeli clarified that Asthma Friendly Schools program is one of the distinctive and ambitious programs which is fixated on comprehending the disease and its dimensions, including methods of disease management through determining and documenting the cases of students with Asthma in the schools involved in the program 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. (QNA)