A Closer Look into the

world of asthma
This information will
take your breath
away!

Introduction
A Closer look into the world of Asthma
Presented by: Tori Mull
Mentor: Mysti Gaspard, R.N.
UTMB Galveston
Emergency Room
ISM (Independent Study Mentorship)- Fall 2016
ISM Teacher: Mrs. Kristi Click

About my Mentor
This is a picture of my mentor and I. My name is Tori
Mull and I am the one in the blue shirt, and my
mentor is Mysti Gaspard and she is the one in the
black shirt.
Mysti Gaspard started off her education by going to
San Jacinto then graduated from University of
Houston with a Bachelor of Political Science and
Business Management. She took off time after that to
open her own cheering business. After 7 years of that,
she went back to school in a 15 month fast track plan
to her BSN at UTMB. She started that in 2012 and
graduated in 2013. She has been working in the
emergency room of UTMB in Galveston every since.

Mentorship Site
This is a picture of my mentorship site. I took it
on the way to one of my mentorship days when
I was at a red light. The name of this building is
The University of Houston Medical Branch or
UTMB in Galveston. I do not know much about
the history of this building and all, but I know
some about the emergency department. It is a
level one trauma center, and most critical
cases will most likely get flown in or sent to
come to our facility for the best care possible.

Brief Introduction into ISM

ISM stands for Independent Study Mentorship.

It is only offered in semesters, but you can take it both semesters in a school year.

It is an advanced class provided at this school to give High School Students a chance to
learn the everyday life of the career they are interested in by someone who is achieving it.

Through the course of the semester you would have to get at least 3 mentor hours and 2
activity hours a week

Activity hours are hours outside of school working on assignments provided in the class.

Teacher gives you a new assignment every week to contribute to helping complete the final
project for this class.

This is a really amazing opportunity for students to know if that career is something they
really want to move forward with or realize it is not for them and move on to another career.

Weebly

While in this class we created a website to put all of our work from this
semester of ISM.

My website is http://torimullism.weebly.com/

Lets Take a Look!

Typical Day at My Mentorship

The best part about my mentorship is that we work only in the

Emergency Room, and you never know what you are going to see or
experience until it happens.

I cant write down exactly what I see everyday because I would be

typing for a very long time, but I mainly see chest pains, psych
patients, and diabetes. That is the most I have seen. That is not the
only thing I see though. I have seen others, but those are the most
common.

I love getting the chance to go for three hours a week to UTMB because
everyday is always something new to experience.

Action shots

This is me checking the

machine
before we had to use it to
make
sure it was working.

This is me standing in the

trauma unit to give
everyone here a better look
at what exactly it looks like
because we are a lever one
trauma unit.

This is me with my PPE or

Personal Protective
Equipment on while I was
watching a procedure being
preformed in the trauma unit.
They were putting in a
pacemaker in an elderly
women to help her pulse

About My Topic

I choose to do my project over Asthma

The reason why I choose to do Asthma was because Asthma is one of

the most common types of illnesses, and reasons why children would
be sick enough to have to go to the Emergency Room.

I believe I would see more Asthma related problems in the Emergency

Room than any other illness or accident related in children.

I know a lot of people who have Asthma and some say they can grow
out of it, and I got curious about how Asthma worked or even how it
came to be

About

History of Asthma. Where did it come from? How did it develop? Has it
changed over time? How is it still changing? In what way?

I will be doing different slides talking about classic signs and symptoms,
treatment plans, diagnosis, test run to diagnose, and how to live a
normal life with this condition.

Different types of Asthma. There are more than just one different types
of Asthma, and I will talk about each of them, explain how each are
caused, why they are different, and compare the types to one another.

About Continuation

I will go over Asthma attacks and talk about the procedures for those,
how they are caused, what are risk factors, what to do if you have one,
talk about plans.

How may people it affects each year in the United States.

Compare United States to other countries to see the rate and see if
different environments affect Asthma, and which is worse. Why?

The different age ranges of first getting asthma and how it progresses
throughout the person future.

About Concludes

Talk about Inhalers and go into more depth about different treatments
and how they work.

Look into the future of Asthma. I will get information online from
doctors about their research and what they believe will be the future of
Asthma. Cure? Extinction of the disease all together? Move and or
affect systems other than the respiratory system? Get more complex
than it is now?

All these questions will be answered and all important facts will be
shared during my presentation.

History of Asthma

We know that asthma has been around since Ancient Egypt, and there is evidence it was around even before
that.

Jean Baptiste Van Helmont was a physician, chemist and physiologist from Belgium. He said that asthma
originates in the pipes of the lungs. 1579-1644 AD

Bernardino Ramazzini was the father of sports medicine. He detected a link between asthma and organic
dust. He also recognized exercise-induced asthma. 1633-1714 AD

Asthma was described as psychological before because of situation with treatment situation. A child's
wheeze was seen as a suppressed cry for his/her mother. Psychologist thought that patients with asthma
should be treated for depression. This theory was eventually removed and asthma became known as a
physical condition.

Asthma was not really recognized an inflammatory disease until the 1960s when anti-inflammatory
medications started being used.

The Diagnosis of Asthma

Signs and Symptoms include:

Cough, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, decrease in ability to preform daily activities, and trouble
sleeping.

Diagnosis:

If you are experiencing any of these signs and symptoms you would think next to go to the doctor and get tested. The
physician would probably start off with asking different questions to get a general idea, and then after move on to actual
test such as Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) which is a hand held device that you forcefully blow exhale into your
lungs and also a test called Spirometry which allows the doctor to see exactly how sever your lack of airflow is.

Treatment:

Different medications based on the severity and exact asthma, Inhaler to own or carry around. All depends on what
Physician thinks is the best option.

Different Types of Asthma

Total of 8 common different types of asthma:

Allergic Asthma- 60% of all cases. Show symptoms with allergies and triggers.

Non-Allergic- 1/3 of people with asthma. Usually cause by viral infections and other irritants such as
environment, smoke, odors, medical conditions.

Exercise Induced Asthma (EIA)- Develop asthma symptoms as a result of exercise.

Occupational Asthma- Cause by work environment

Cough Variant Asthma- Coughing is the only symptoms to this type of asthma.

Medication Induced Asthma- When a persons medications worsen or start their asthma symptoms

Nocturnal Asthma- Symptoms worsen or show during the night.

Glucocorticoids Resistant Asthma- People who do not respond to their medication

Asthma Attacks

An asthma attack is a sudden worsening of asthma symptoms caused by the tightening of muscles around your
airways

Can be brought on by daily activities

Symptoms of an asthma attack include:

Severe wheezing when breathing both in and out, excessive coughing, very rapid breathing , chest tightness, tightened
neck and chest muscles, difficulty with speech, feelings of panic, pale, blue lips as well as fingernails, and trouble
sleeping

If you experience this call 911 immediately because asthma attacks are very dangerous. They can lead to damage of
organs and also death.

Common triggers for asthma attacks include dust mites, smoke, air pollution, pets, and mold.

How Many are Affected with Asthma

in the United States

Around 24 million people today are affected with asthma in the United
States, but it is rapidly increasing.

In adults it is more common for women than men, but in children it is

more common for boys than girls.

6.3 million of the 24 million are under the age of 18 years old

Inhalers

Most common treatment for asthma

Inhalers are not just for asthma they can work with any other
airways or respiratory related illness such as COPD.

You breath in the medication that is inside of the container, hold it

in, then breath normally. The medication relaxes the muscles that
contract that are restricting your ability to breath

Future of Asthma

They are working on more medications and even an overall treatment

for asthma as we speak. They have been working on this for years and
it is progressing one day at a time, but as far as we know now it is still
going to be a long while and asthma is excessively increasing in
individuals every day. By the next the next year the number of asthma
cases reported now will almost be doubled.

Product

Conclusion

I hope everyone enjoyed my presentation, and will walk out of here

today with a new opened mindset on Asthma from the information you
gathered from this presentation.

If anyone has any questions for me about any part of my presentation

now is the time to ask, and I would be more than happy to answer and
give you more understanding and knowledge of this disease.

My Special Thank Yous!

I would like to thank my mentor, Mysti Gaspard for allowing me this

amazing opportunity to shadow her the past three months, and get a
better understanding and feel for what I would want to do in my life.

I would like to thank my parents Ona and Darin Mull for always
supporting me when it came to this class, and also just about my career
path in general.

Most importantly, I would like to thank my teacher, Mrs. Kristi Click for
excepting me into this class. Without you, I would never have had this
opportunity in the first place and I am beyond thankful.

Citation

@patient. "Inhalers - What Are They and What Do They Do? | Doctor Sarah Jarvis Health Blog | Patient." Patient. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
Nov. 2016. <http://patient.info/blogs/sarah-says/2013/04/inhalers---what-are-they-and-what-do-they-do>.

Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/asthma/asthmahistory.php>.

Https://www.facebook.com/verywell. "Do You Have These Asthma Symptoms?" Verywell. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
<https://www.verywell.com/how-do-i-know-if-i-have-asthma-200893>.

"Common Asthma Triggers." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 Aug. 2012.
Web. 28 Nov. 2016. <http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/triggers.html>.

"Asthma: Still a Promising Future?" Asthma: Still a Promising Future? | European Respiratory Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
<http://err.ersjournals.com/content/23/134/405>.

"Asthma Attack: Causes, Early Warning Signs, and Treatment." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
<http://www.webmd.com/asthma/guide/asthma-attack?page=3>.

"AAFA." Asthma Facts | AAFA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016. <http://www.aafa.org/page/asthma-facts.aspx>.