Incorrect Inhaler Technique among Healthcare Professionals

Having correct inhaling technique is crucial for any asthmatic patient. Incorrect inhaler technique normally prevents patients suffering from asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from receiving the utmost bene?t from their inhaled medications.

A brief verbal instruction about the correct technique along with the physical or audio-visual illustrations has the ability to prove more efficient, when repeated over time. Irrespective of the type of inhaler device prescribed, most of the Asthma or COPD patients do not tend to use their inhaler device correctly unless they receive appropriate instructions, like physical or audio- visual demonstration in their own language with an opportunity to allow them to practice at their own pace and comfort. Healthcare providers need to provide their patients with the in-depth step by step demonstration to follow the appropriate technique

• Major Causes: Most of the healthcare providers lack time and show partial interest in educating patients on the correct technique to use their inhalers. They even lag behind in accessing the patient’s inhaling techniques. This is very important to ensure that the patient uses it correctly for better treatment outcome. More significantly, most healthcare providers themselves possess poor inhaler technique. Thus this leads to patients receiving guidance with incorrect techniques.
• Advised Solution: This universal problem can be improved by regular and reinforced training of the healthcare providers. There are interactive audio-visual courses available online for healthcare providers, to get better trained over various aspects of inhaling techniques for each device and earn credits.

Visit www.use-inhalers.com to take the CRCE course now.