Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways where the airways are constricted from inflammation and hyper-responsiveness to many asthma triggers including; allergens, infections, exercise, abrupt changes in the weather and exposure to airway irritants. It is one of the most common chronic diseases of the childhood. The aim of this study was to assess mothers' knowledge and practice about care of their children with asthma, design and implement a discharge guide program for mothers about care of their children with asthma and evaluate the effect of the discharge guide program on mothers' knowledge and practice. The present study follows a quasi-experimental research design. It was conducted in Pediatric Departments at Benha University Hospital, Chest Hospital and Specialized Pediatric Hospital in Benha City during November, 2007 to April, 2008. It was involved eighty mothers of children with asthma and their children were from both sexes, their ages ranged from 5 to 14 years. The tools of data collection consisted of pre/post assessment questionnaire which contain part one: characteristics of mothers, children and their asthma characteristics, part two: mothers' knowledge regarding to asthma as definition, causes, symptoms (mild, moderate and severe), complications, medication, care of children during attack and asthma triggering factors. Pre/post Mothers' Practice Checklist and discharge guide program. The results of the present study showed that the mean age of children was 7.35 ± 1.69 years; meanwhile the mean age of their mothers was 27.48 ± 2.17 years. None of the mothers (0.0%) had total satisfactory knowledge at the pre-program phase. Meanwhile, 81.2% of them had total satisfactory knowledge at the post-program phase. Similarly, none of the mothers (0.0%) had total satisfactory practice at the pre-program phase, while most of them (88.8%) had a satisfactory practice at the post-program phase. There was highly statistical significant difference between mothers' knowledge, practice and their ages, level of education and working status. This study concluded that the nurse had no role regarding providing mothers with knowledge and practice and the educational program had a good effect on improving mothers' knowledge and practice related to care of their children with asthma. The study recommended that the nurse should play a direct role in providing mothers with knowledge and practice, provide all mothers of children with asthma by updated pamphlets, posters and Arabic booklets about asthma which contain action plan suitable for each child's asthma nature in order to facilitate improving their knowledge and continuously evaluate their knowledge and practice to achieve optimal asthma control outcomes.
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