Understanding personal asthma action plans

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-100
Author(s):  
Heather Henry

Personal asthma action plans are an essential tool to keep people with asthma as well as possible. Heather Henry explains the role of the practice nurse in developing them Personal asthma action plans (PAAPs) are written plans that help people with asthma to self-care and keep themselves as well as possible. PAAPs are usually developed in partnership with the patient or carer in primary care. PAAPs aim to ensure that people with asthma know how to manage their asthma and when to seek help if their condition deteriorates. To manage their asthma adequately at home, patients will need regular education about what asthma is, an understanding of their triggers, how their medications work and managing their devices. The practice nurse can play a key role in developing the PAAP, monitoring asthma control, and subsequently modifying the PAAP if necessary to maintain control of the condition.

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 370-374
Author(s):  
Heather Henry

Personal asthma action plans (PAAPs) are written plans that help people with asthma to self-care and keep themselves as well as possible. PAAPs are usually developed in partnership with the patient or carer in primary care. PAAPs aim to ensure that people with asthma know how to manage their asthma and when to seek help if their condition deteriorates. To manage their asthma adequately at home, patients will need regular education about what asthma is, an understanding of their triggers, how their medications work and managing their devices. The practice nurse can play a key role in developing the PAAP, monitoring asthma control, and subsequently modifying the PAAP if necessary to maintain control of the condition.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Walker ◽  
Cassia Lewis-Land ◽  
Carrie Vibbert ◽  
MaryBeth Bollinger ◽  
Mona Tsoukleris ◽  
...  

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. e022922
Author(s):  
Sara Bousema ◽  
Annemieke J Verwoerd ◽  
Lucas M Goossens ◽  
Arthur M Bohnen ◽  
Patrick J E Bindels ◽  
...  

IntroductionIn children with asthma, daily symptoms and exacerbations have a significant impact on the quality of life of both children and parents. More effective use of asthma medication and, consequently, better asthma control is advocated, since both overtreatment and undertreatment are reported in primary care. Trials in adults suggest that asthma control is better when patients receive a regular medical review. Therefore, protocolled care by the general practitioner may also lead to better asthma control in children. However, such protocolled care by the general practitioner may be time consuming and less feasible. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether protocolled practice nurse-led asthma care for children in primary care provides more effective asthma control than usual care.Methods and analysisThe study will be a cluster-randomised open-label trial with an 18-month follow-up. Practice nurses will be the units of randomisation and children with asthma the units of analysis. It is planned to include 180 children aged 6–12 years. Primary outcome will be average asthma control during the 18-month follow-up measured by the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT). Secondary outcomes include C-ACT scores at t=3, t=6, t=12 and t=18 months; the frequency and severity of exacerbations; cost-effectiveness; quality of life; satisfaction with delivered care; forced expiratory volume in 1 s and forced expiratory flow at 75% and the association of high symptoms scores at baseline and baseline characteristics. Besides, we will conduct identical measurements in a non-randomised sample of children.Ethics and disseminationThis will be the first trial to evaluate the effectiveness of protocolled practice nurse-led care for children with asthma in primary care. The results may lead to improvements in asthma care for children and can be directly implemented in revisions of asthma guidelines.The study protocol was approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.Trial registrationNTR6847.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Gibson ◽  
Dianne Goeman ◽  
Dimity Pond

Abstract Background The potential value of expanding the Practice Nurse role to include the recognition and management of dementia has been acknowledged. Practice Nurses are well-positioned to provide comprehensive dementia information and support so that people living with dementia are better equipped to self-manage their health and live well with dementia. The purpose of this review was to systematically examine published literature to identify existing and potential roles of Practice Nurse’s in the delivery of care to people affected by dementia and to describe the characteristics and effectiveness of nurse interventions in dementia models of care. Methods The PRISMA statement was used as a guide to systematically review the evidence for roles and characteristics of the Practice Nurse in the delivery of dementia care. A comprehensive literature search of seven electronic databases and Google scholar identified relevant original research published in English between January 2000 and January 2019. Thirteen articles met the inclusion criteria and were extracted into the Covidence software for analysis.Results The heterogeneity of the included studies purpose, design and outcomes measures and the diversity in health systems and primary care nurses scope of practice made it difficult to synthesise the findings and draw conclusions. The heterogeneity did, however, provide important insights into the characteristics of roles undertaken by nurses working in the general practice setting, which were potentially beneficial to people living with dementia and their support person. These included patient accessibility to the Practice Nurse, early recognition and management of cognitive changes, care management and collaboration with the General Practitioner. Limitations of the provision of dementia care by Practice Nurses included a lack of definition of the role, inadequate dementia specific training, time constraints and poor communication with General Practitioners. Conclusions Embedding an evidence-based model that describes the role of the Practice Nurse in dementia care provision has the potential to increase early recognition of cognitive impairment and more appropriate primary care management of dementia.Systematic Review registration numberPROSPERO 2018 CRD42018088191


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