Course overview
As a nurse working in the community, GP practice, out of hours, rapid response or a hospital setting, you now need more knowledge in COPD and asthma. On this course, you learn how to manage these conditions according to current guidance to improve patient outcomes. Your respiratory knowledge for these conditions is assessed through a case log.
Where you study
Lectures are delivered both on campus and online.
Course details
What you study
You learn about the respiratory disease trajectories, and current evidence that supports managing asthma and COPD in its acute and chronic phases. Focus on how the diseases are diagnosed, assessed and holistically managed.
You also learn how to review clinical history for patients with asthma or COPD, and how to perform relevant clinical examination and investigations such as cardiopulmonary examination, spirometry analysis and X-ray analysis.
You learn how to titrate and monitor the therapeutic regime a patient requires to optimise their clinical state and maintain stability. Explore the patient's response to their illness, and develop strategies to help them manage their disease with minimal symptoms, improving their health and quality of life.
This knowledge makes you a more confident practitioner when supporting your patients and their family. Being able to recognise early deterioration in their clinical state hopefully helps avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
How you learn
Experiential learning techniques help build your confidence in respiratory disease diagnostics and holistic therapeutics for your workplace.
You also take part in discussions with your peers to share good practice and enhance your learning.
Your final assessment is a 4,000-word case log with two case studies.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
You should be a registered healthcare professional and have at least six months’ experience of working with patients with respiratory problems.
You need support in the workplace from an experienced respiratory practitioner to ensure your knowledge is applied to practice in the workplace.
Employability
Career opportunities
This award helps meet the requirements of the current NHS Chronic Disease Agenda, and the changes required by the new general medical services contracts and reduction in hospital doctors’ hours.
Given the burden of respiratory disease for the NHS, many roles are developing that require knowledge of asthma and COPD diagnostics and therapeutics. This award equips you for a variety of roles in this area.
