COPD encompasses a group of respiratory diseases that present with chronic obstructive symptoms. Emphysema and chronic bronchiolitis are the two main diseases classified as COPD. COPD greatly affects the quality of life of patients affected by this disease and most of the times these patients have to be on medications (Halpin & Tashkin, 2009) . Exacerbations of the disease are common and these greatly endanger the lives of the patients affected. Being an ICU nurse, I have seen very many patients who get readmitted because of exacerbations of symptoms that mainly stem from poor patient education regarding proper use of medications and various factors that contribute to worsening of symptoms. In view of this, I thought it is important that I should explore this topic further with the aim of placing emphasis on the importance of patient education as a way of helping to reduce readmission of COPD patients.
Significance of the problem
COPD is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. It is estimated that the disease affects about 24 million Americans annually and contributes to close to 3 million deaths annually worldwide. Further, because of the frequent exacerbations that necessitate hospital readmissions, the disease places a huge burden of hospital resources across the world. It is estimated that 15.9 % of hospital admissions in U.S is as a result of COPD exacerbations (Qureshi et al., 2014). This means that a lot of hospital resources are used to take care of these patients putting a strain on the healthcare system. These resources include beds pace, oxygen demands, ICU space, human resource, medications among others. In U.S, the financial burden on COPD on healthcare system is close to £253 million annually (Qureshi et al., 2014) . Further, the disease reduces the productivity of the people affected in that their physical activities are greatly limited due to the shortness of breath that these patients experience. This means significant loss in revenue that these people could be generating if they were healthy and able to work just like the rest of the healthy population. In view of this, it is therefore important that proper education regarding self-care and appropriate use of medication is given to COPD patients in a bid to reduce flares that cause these patients to be admitted. By giving them proper education on self-care and appropriate use of medications, these patients would suffer fewer attacks and this means that they would be able to go about their usual businesses normally and this would increase their productivity.
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Best Practices
Patient education forms an important foundation for the management of COPD patients. Patient education can reduce the flare rates and the need for readmissions. Therefore, there is need to institute patient education programs as part of the management of COPD patients. One of the education programs that can be implemented in the management of COPD patients is lifestyle modification (Harris, 2008). It is well known that COPD has a behavioral component to it. For example, smoking is one of the causes of COPD and it is also a fact that cigarette smoke causes flares that lead to readmission of COPD patients. Therefore, there is need to educate patients with COPD about the need to quit smoking and also teach them coping mechanisms that would help overcome their addictions. Also, there is need to educate them on the need to avoid pollutants such as dust, strong perfumes that would aggravate their condition. It is also important to teach COPD patients on the proper use of their medications especially the inhalers because poor use of the drugs particularly the inhalers could be a contributing factor to worsening symptoms and frequent exacerbations which necessitate hospital admissions (Harris, 2008). It is also important for the patients to be educated on detecting worsening symptoms and actions to take in such cases in a bid to save a life. Since nurses are the ones who have many contact hours with these patients, they should be the ones to handle patient education. Nurses in charge of patient education should be well trained so that they can pass information to the patients in a manner that is easy to comprehend to apply. Special training should be organized for nurses handling patient education for COPD patients to ensure that they have a good understanding of the condition and how they can pass this knowledge to the patients. They should also be trained on how to handle patients from different cultural backgrounds to ensure that they can handle any patient presenting with COPD regardless of their background.
Best Intervention Strategy
The solution that I found most applicable and that has a huge potential of reducing exacerbations and the rate of readmissions is educating the COPD patients on the proper use of their medications particularly their inhalers. Wrong use of inhalers does not offer any help to COPD patients as the drug fails to reach the site of action which is the airways and this means that despite applying the drug, it is of no use to the patient. This is a big problem particularly with the elderly patients. This is a window of opportunity that nurses can take advantage of to help lower the rate of readmission which would go a long way to freeing hospital resources for use by other patients. Further, by learning how to apply the inhalers correctly, mortality rate would reduce since in severe attacks, patients would be in a good position to apply the drug correctly and thus save their life. In summary, correct drug use can reduce morbidity and mortality associated with COPD.
References
Halpin, D., & Tashkin, D. (2009). Defining Disease Modification in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. COPD: Journal Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease , 6 (3), 211-225. https://doi.org/10.1080/15412550902918402
Harris, M. (2008). Patient education programs – can they improve outcomes in COPD?. International Journal Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease , Volume 3 , 109-112. https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s635
Qureshi, H., Sharafkhaneh, A., & Hanania, N. (2014). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations: latest evidence and clinical implications. Therapeutic Advances In Chronic Disease , 5 (5), 212-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/2040622314532862
