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Latest news from ARNS
Ear Bird Booking for ARNS 2019 Annual Conference now Open
The 2019 ARNS Annual Conference will be held at Coldra Court, Newport. Booking is now open. We are looking forward to welcoming members to Coldra Court where we have an excellent programme planned.
Book by 14th February to benefit from the excellent Early Bird Rate.
Book on line here
Taskforce for Lung Health launches in Parliament
The Taskforce for Lung Heath is an exciting collaboration of the largest ever group of organisations and individuals who have come together to improve lung health. ARNS is proud to be one of the 29 member groups, which include health care professionals, the voluntary sector and professional associations.
One in five people in the UK have been diagnosed with a Lung Disease. Yet over the past ten years there has been no improvement in the amount of people dying from lung disease unlike other diseases such as cancer and heart disease
Nurses, including specialist nurses lead and co-ordinate treatment and care for patients with lung disease. We know approx. half of respiratory nurse specialists could retire by 2026.(1) (2)
Recommendation 6e of the Taskforce for Lung Health report launched today calls for NHSE and the government to focus on recruitment and retention of nurses, including reviewing the funding mechanisms for training and continuing professional development programmes’
At Report’s Parliamentary Launch on 4th November, Wendy Preston, Chair of ARNS said
“It is important that we share our patients’ stories and the experience we have from clinical practice. What we will then show is that there is a big variation in clinical practice, and a big variation in services that are available. And when we put that evidence forward then we can start informing decision-makers”
Read more about the Taskforce for Lung Health here
(1) Yorke J, Prigmore S, Hodson M, et al. Evaluation of the current landscape ofrespiratory nurse specialists in the UK: planning for the future needs of patients.
(2)BMJ Open Respiratory Research 2017;4:e000210. doi: 10.1136/bmjresp‐2017‐000210
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Podcast
The week of 18th and 24th June 2018 was Pulmonary Week in the UK. Pulmonary Rehab (PR) is an exercise and education programme for people with long-term lung conditions. PR has multiple benefits to patients from reducing sensation of breathlessness, improving quality of life and confidence in self-management. PR has also shown to reduce risk of exacerbation, reduce A&E attendance/hospital admission and length of stay. Claire Norfolk and Alex Christie, Respiratory Physiotherapists in Berkshire West discuss what PR is and the benefits in attending and what is on offer in Berkshire West with Russell Winwood, the COPD Athlete in Australia who came and spoke at their Pulmonary Rehab service 2017 prior to taking part in the London Marathon raising money for lung disease research.
To listen to the podcast go to https://soundcloud.com/user-184199032/breathe-easy-week-2018
Get your inhaler technique right in three minutes
A series of new videos has been created by Asthma UK and endorsed by the UK Inhaler Group.
Good inhaler technique is key for people with respiratory conditions, but there are quite a few variations in how it’s taught. That’s why Asthma UK has created a range of easy-to-follow instructional videos for the most widely prescribed inhalers in the UK.
“We know that if people with respiratory conditions don’t use their inhaler correctly, or regularly enough, their symptoms may increase – and they are at greater risk of being admitted to hospital” – Dr Omar Usmani, Chair of the UK Inhaler Group & Consultant Respiratory Physician
Clinically accurate and developed with input from people with respiratory conditions, these are short, easy-to-watch tutorials showing how to best use the most commonly prescribed inhalers. The videos are endorsed by the UK Inhaler Group, a not-for-profit coalition whose members include professional societies and charities like the British Lung Foundation, as well as GPs, hospital specialists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and nurses from highly respected national bodies.
Dr Andy Whittamore, Asthma UK’s in-house GP, says: “As healthcare professionals, we can’t be with our patients all the time, but we now all have a reliable and up-to-date library of inhaler videos. This will give both me and my patients the confidence that they are taking their inhaled medicines correctly every time. We can go through the videos in clinic and my patients can view them again in their own time whenever they need to.”
Access the videos here
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
