News
Latest news from ARNS
NICE Asthma quality standard update (QS25)
We are pleased to announce that the NICE Asthma update has been published on the NICE website today.
Also available on the website is a summary of the consultation comments prepared by the NICE quality standards team and the full set of consultation comments.
Dyspnooea (breathlessness): Still an ongoing battle
Dyspnoea or more commonly called breathlessness or breathing discomfort continues to be a common, debilitating symptom. There is still an ongoing issue with patients’ reporting chronic breathlessness often attributing it to age or self-infliction such as smoking. There also continues to be lack of understanding from non-specialist health care professionals about the extent dyspnoea can be debilitating, with delays in accessing treatments, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological.
Download the full article written by our Vice Chair, Katy Beckford and Alex Christie, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Lead here
Publication of the Asthma Audit Development Project (AADP) phase 2 final report
The Asthma Audit Development Project (AADP) has recently published its phase 2 final report, which presents conclusions and recommendations on how a National Asthma Audit should be conducted. It is the second of the AADP reports produced since the start of the project in November 2016. This is part of the National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme (NACAP).
The report is available as:
- A project report which presents full project methodology, key findings, patient quotes, conclusions and recommendations for next steps
- A patient summary report which provides a more concise, lay friendly, summary of the report. It contains visualisations of the project methodology and findings, along with head line conclusions and recommendations.
Both of these are available to download at: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/asthma-audit-development-project-aadp-phase-2-final-report. The full AADP pilot storyboard and the report appendices are also available to download via this link.
ARNS is very excited to be part of this project and is looking forward to seeing the implementation of a long overdue National Asthma Audit that will start to be rolled out from November 2018, with a view of providing long term Quality Improvement across the NHS.
New RCP report reveals more mesothelioma patients are receiving active treatment
New report reveals more mesothelioma patients are receiving active treatment
A new report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and Mesothelioma UK shows that more mesothelioma patients diagnosed in England and Wales during 2014-2016 are receiving active anti-cancer treatment with chemotherapy.
The report also shows that despite increased active treatment, just 7% of patients are alive three years after being diagnosed.
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer predominately linked to asbestos, and found mainly in older men due to being linked to occupations such as shipbuilding and electrical installation where exposure to asbestos is high. The disease typically affects the chest, but can also occur in other sites such as the abdomen.
Other key findings from the National Mesothelioma Audit report 2018 include:
- Pathological confirmation of the diagnosis was achieved in 88% of cases, only just short of the 90% audit standard
- Access to a cancer nurse specialist remains variable across England.
- 81% of patients were discussed at lung multi-disciplinary team (MDTs) meetings – short of the 95% target but an improvement on previous years
- Specialist services for patients suffering from peritoneal mesothelioma are now emerging. Peritoneal mesothelioma is rare, constituting 4% of mesothelioma cases, and are included for the first time in this report
Download the National Mesothelioma Audit Report 2018 here
BTS Guideline for the outpatient management of pulmonary embolism
The new BTS Guideline for the initial outpatient management of pulmonary embolism has been published.
The new Guideline provides guidance on how to risk-stratify patients with suspected and confirmed pulmonary embolism and subsequently manage them in an outpatient or ambulatory care setting.
The full guideline is published as a supplement to the July 2018 issue of Thorax (available below). A summary of the recommendations is also available in BMJ Open Respiratory Research. Read the Thorax article online here
ARNS Delphi survey of UK respiratory nurse research priorities published in ERJ Open Research
ARNS is pleased to announce that the findings from the Delphi survey to identify research priorities by UK respiratory nurses has now been published in ERJ Open Research.
This can be viewed online or downloaded from: http://openres.ersjournals.com/lookup/doi/10.1183/23120541.00003-2018 This is an Open Access publication and can be accessed free of charge
