Misuse of Respiratory Inhalers

1509 Words7 Pages
Misuse of Respiratory Inhalers 1 Running head: MISUSE OF RESPIRATORY INHALERS Misuse of Respiratory Inhalers and Patient Education Doris Day Oates University of Maryland University College Misuse of Respiratory Inhalers 2 Misuse of Respiratory Inhalers and Patient Education Patient with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) face a multitude of challenges. One of those challenges is the responsibility of the health care professionals to provide and teach proper inhaler techniques to their patients. Studies have shown patient education plays an important role in patient achieving self management of their chronic disease for effective treatment and best possible health (Batterink, Dahri, Aulah & Rempel ,2010; Kiser, Jonas, Warner, Scanlon, Shilliday, & Dewalt, 2011; Press, Arora, Shah, Lewis, Charbeneau, Naureckas & Krishnan, 2012). In the current paper the misuse of respiratory inhalers and intervention of imparting knowledge and instructions of techniques is investigated. Regarding respiratory inhalers, it shows that half of the people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease misuse their inhaler device which results in insufficient amounts of drug reaching the lungs. Batterink, Dahri, Aulah & Rempel (2010) evaluated the inhaler technique of patients with COPD who have been admitted to the hospital and identified baseline patient characteristics and/or inhaler devices associated with poor inhaler techniques. Thirty-seven patients (mean age 78 years) participated in study. Twenty-two (59%) made critical errors while demonstrating inhaler technique. On an average, 26% of the steps for using an inhaler were performed incorrectly. Twenty-three (62%) of the participants reported having received counseling on inhaler
Open Document