Easy Breathers: Asthma Services

Asthma is the most common childhood chronic illness, affecting nearly five million children in the United States. Asthma is a chronic, obstructive lung disease that causes swelling (inflammation), narrowing (bronchoconstriction) and fluid (mucous) production, reducing airflow. However, when asthma is well controlled, children with asthma can do almost everything that children without asthma can do.

Here at Kids First, we take a bold, hands-on approach to help our patients and families. Easy Breathers: Your Partners in Asthma Care is a team of staff members highly trained in asthma education and treatment. Our program provides specialized, personal care for each one of our asthma patients.

Our Easy Breathers team have extensive education and experience in asthma care and are certified by the National Asthma Educator Certification Board. The team is lead by Jessica Fanucchi, CPNP, Delia Groza, CPNP, Shannon Briones, RN, Marlyn Briones, RN, and Sarah Nussbaum, RN. Their goal as a team is to connect one-on-one with patients suffering from asthma and their families in order to help them better understand and manage their care on their own.

Kids First patients with asthma are directed to the Easy Breathers team so that in addition to seeing their primary care physician, asthma patients build a close relationship with the asthma team. Members of the asthma team develop a tailor-made asthma management plan for each child and follow up throughout the patients’ care.

Easy Breathers Asthma Information

The asthma team is the first of many similar teams to come at Kids First. In the future providers and nurses at Kids First hope to develop similar teams of experts to focus on various areas of pediatrics, such as childhood obesity.