Respiratory Nursing

How has respiratory care improved over the last 20 years?

Education for Health celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. So much has been achieved in the management of airways disease since the former National Respiratory Training Centre was established back in 1987 – but there is still much more to be done.

Nurses have become central to the delivery of respiratory care in both primary and secondary settings, as well as all the various configurations of in-reach and outreach care. Twenty years ago, the only specialist respiratory nurses were in large teaching hospitals and were mainly dealing with TB. As for practice nurses, there were fewer than 800 in the country, undertaking mainly treatment-room work and only within the interested dynamic practices were they involved with respiratory care.

Education for Health decided to complete a survey on the role of practice nurses in respiratory disease and on how services are now organised in primary care. This was indeed intended to be a celebration of its work. There are however, worrying findings which are analysed in detail in this report.

This special Respiratory Nursing supplement deals with these issues and much more. Published in conjunction with the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists, we cover aspergillosis, the role of asthma link nurses for schools, accurate spirometry, making it something you really can't afford to ignore.

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