Tuesday, 27 May 2014

COPD Nurse Network

Extension of nursing care

Emma Vincent
Pulmonary Rehabilitation & Respiratory Nurse Specialist

This regional specialist network group was founded 20 years ago. Today was my
rst meeting. The group is an opportunity to share latest developments in local
nursing innovation. The education is provided via formal presentation but with an
informal atmosphere that encourages transparency and healthy debate. It is also
a fantastic opportunity to network with many different types of respiratory
nurses. Today there was a mix of COPD care, palliative, ILD, formal education,
integrated care, community and secondary care nurses.

The meeting had a very positive spin attached. As we shared practice and
patients experiences we spoke of how some of the extensions of our role
appeared to have a visible positive effect. COPD, though considered a chronic,
debilitating and sometimes fatal disease, we felt could be managed, controlled
and slowed down. In essence, many of us there today felt as though we were
making a difference.

Our chair, Jane Scullion (Respiratory Nurse Consultant) opened the meeting with
the hot topic of co-morbidities. We had all noted the drive towards generic
teams managing breathlessness. There was also discussion around the provision
of care for those patients with heart failure, overlaps had been seen in areas
such as pulmonary rehabilitation. Jane also mentioned the recent talk of ACOS
(Asthma COPD Overlap Syndrome) and the implications that had upon patient
care and health care provision.

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Tuesday, 27 May 2014


At todays meeting I also played my own heart strings. I presented Breathing
space for carers. For some time I have felt this to be of great importance for
the provision of compassionate holistic care.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/226372615/Breathing-space-for-carers

Many, if not all of the nurses today had something to add on this topic. I was
both humbled and touched by stories they shared of their patients and carers. In
particular where patients had felt they had lost the role of wife or daughter to
become carer. We were reminded today of the importance of referring carers
for a Carer Assessment and of the positive impact we could have upon
improving quality of life by effectively signposting to other services. Caring for
our carers may well be an extension of our role but we all felt that it was integral
to the compassionate care we provide.

The second half of the meeting looked at local and national initiatives to
encourage Self-Management for patients with COPD. There were expressed
concerns today of the over use in rescue medications, with particular concern
given to the high doses of steroids being taken by some patients. We discussed
local tele-health projects, the barriers and facilitators of on-line self-
management plans for the elderly and the denitions of self-managing.

In reality our patients have been self-managing for years, their way of coping
may contradict nursing advice or adhere to it. These new innovations seek to
educate, support and reassure our patients, and are an adjunct to nursing care,
not a replacement. Self-management is a way of aiding a patients can-do (self-
efcacy) mechanism in coping with their disease and its symptoms. It is a
process of promoting a long-term positive behavioural change that is orientated
around the patients need.

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Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Professional networks like today encourage peer support and enhances learning
opportunities in treating patients with COPD. Shared knowledge encourages
compassionate evidence based care. Something all of our patients, and their
carers deserve.






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