2021: Supporting patients towards better lung health

The start of a new year is an ideal time to support patients to consider small ways to begin working towards a healthy lifestyle. Grand gestures are unlikely to be sustainable long term but taking small steps towards a longer term goal can help to improve or maintain their lung health and encourage patients to take further steps along the road. Here are our top five primary care resolutions for 2021 to encourage and support patients to improve or protect their lung health.

1.    Be an advocate for smoking cessation

Supporting smoking cessation should always be at the top of the list of actions to improve lung health. Get yourself up to speed with the Very Brief Advice (VBA) approach to help you start the conversation. While your first conversation might not be the one to prompt a quit attempt, the next one might be. The PCRS Tobacco Dependency Pragmatic Guide provides a range of useful information and resources or download our flier for quick tips.

2. Help people find ways to get more fresh air

Discuss ways to get out into the fresh air at least once a day. This can be anything from 10 minutes in front of an open window while practising breathing control or in the garden to a brisk walk to the shop and back once a day. Make sure you know where the open spaces are in your local area and encourage your patients to make use of them.

3. Encourage people to take measures to improve indoor air quality

This could include regularly airing out rooms or reducing the use of scented candles or air fresheners. Airing our bedrooms and bedding is something our grandparents would have done without a second thought. Turning down the bed, opening the window and closing the door for an hour every morning could be part of a new morning routine. The British Lung Foundation Guide to improving air quality in the home provides lots of useful tips and suggestions for patients.

4. Ensure patients with chronic lung conditions are taking their medications as prescribed

Use the first consultation in 2021 to make sure your patients understand the medications they are taking and the importance of taking them as prescribed. Asking patients to tell you the medications they take and what they are for can be a useful way to help to correct any misunderstandings. Check out our inhaler technique training video by PCRS member and pharmacist Darush Attar Zedah, to help provide guidance to patients using inhalers.

5. Help people find ways to sit less and move more

Deconditioning is a concern for patients with chronic lung conditions who may not be able to distinguish shortness of breath from exercise from breathlessness due to their underlying condition. The new year is an opportunity to discuss the importance of keeping lungs working and finding a level of exercise that suits them. This might be anything from armchair exercises to working towards a walking marathon. Encourage eligible patients to engage with pulmonary rehabilitation. See our helpful guide for communicating the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation to patients.

 

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