Innovative and community-partnered pulmonary rehabilitation for seniors in NB

About the project

In New Brunswick, 1 in 5 seniors live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a respiratory condition in which the airflow through the lungs is blocked. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, coughing, mucus production and wheezing. Less than 1% of people affected by this condition have access to pulmonary rehabilitation – a non-pharmacological treatment involving education, targeted exercise, and breathwork.

  • Pulmonary rehabilitation can reduce the COPD symptoms, improve quality of life and prevent doctor and hospital visits.

Barriers to implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation programs include lacking designated or trained personnel, facility accessibility, hospital space, equipment and dedicated funding. As part of this pilot program, community-based pulmonary rehabilitation clinics were set up to provide education and therapy for older people with COPD.

  • Participants attended an 8-week program, consisting of 2-hour sessions occurring 3 times/week.
  • In this “student-infused” program, New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) students specializing in respiratory therapy, nursing and pharmacy technician studies delivered education and therapy under healthcare professional supervision within the community-based clinics.
  • This approach differs from regular pulmonary rehabilitation programs that are exclusively delivered by healthcare professionals in hospitals.

The project aimed to assess the efficacy of the 8-week community-based, student-infused pulmonary rehabilitation program in the Saint John and St. Stephen clinics.95 seniors received program services and 72 of them participated in the evaluation (M =72.72 years, range = 56-92 years, 51% women, 95% Anglophone, 5% Francophone)

Conclusions and lessons learned

  • After the 8-week pulmonary rehabilitation program, participants improved their COPD symptoms and disease management.
  • The students' dedication and participation in the program increased clinic capacity and improved access to pulmonary rehabilitation for seniors with COPD. This model also contributes to healthcare student experiential learning and professional development.
  • Community-based, student-infused pulmonary rehabilitation appears to be an effective delivery model and has been duplicated eight times already in Southwestern New Brunswick.

Recommendations

  • By involving healthcare students in pulmonary rehabilitation delivery, this treatment can reach more New Brunswickers in need.
  • This project recommends sustaining and scaling up this community-based student-infused program in New Brunswick as it has demonstrated efficacy on COPD symptoms and disease management. This could potentially decrease the risk of flare-ups among New Brunswickers with COPD and reduce costs and burden on the healthcare system.
  • The program can be expanded to support patients with other pulmonary conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis.

To learn more read the complete project findings (PDF 133 KB)

Knowledge transfer