Several studies show that health care professionals (including doctors, nurses and pharmacists) may only demonstrate correct inhaler technique to patients around 10% of the time. This is of paramount importance because the way a patient uses a device is proportional to the amount of drug they will deposit in their lungs, which in turn has a direct correlation with emergency attendance at the hospital and poor respiratory disease control..

This session will include:

• Familiarisation with inhaler competency guidelines
• The importance of correct inhaler technique
• Increase confidence in teaching and checking inhaler technique
• Recognise common errors in inhaler technique
• How websites and apps like rightbreathe can assist in clinicians in consultations
• Demonstrations of some of the commonly used devices

The session will cover:

• Asthma Guidelines
• New developments in asthma management
• Small airways disease in asthma
• Inhalers and the environment

The evidence suggests that between two thirds to a half of all medications prescribed for long term conditions are not taken as recommended. In asthma care, there is widespread non-adherence to taking preventer medications regularly (NICE, 2009).

This session will cover:

• The difference between adherence and concordance with treatment
• Personalisation and relational working
• Consultation techniques: benefits/concerns, health/literacy, safety netting
• How to spot poor concordance
• Tools to aid concordance including play therapy