Welcome to the GP Healthcare Alliance’s Asthma in Primary Care course.

Estimated Completion Time: 3 Hours

This course is designed for any staff members who will be working in the health sector in a clinical role in Great Britain. The aim of this training is for the learner to be able to understand Asthma from triggers to diagnosis to medication at an intermediate level, as required by your workplace in the United Kingdom, it is very text heavy with necessary documentation included. Depending on prior knowledge and experience this course may vary in time taken for completion and may take up to 3 hours. You will always adhere to your workplace protocols; gain an understanding of what you will need to do and why, maintaining professional practices throughout. All guidelines provided in the Lessons of this course are correct and current at the time of writing. You will need to ensure that you follow any updated guidelines and work protocols within your practice.

It would be beneficial to have a note pad at the ready, but please do not worry if you have not, there are downloadable files for your future reference and to be enlarged as required if need be! Some of the tables and examples provided have not got audio support as they will be included in the PDF at the end of each lesson, they can be increased in size within this format if needed.

Course overview:

• What is Asthma? 

On completion of this Lesson you will understand conditions that may present similar to Asthma. What Asthma is, from the symptoms and triggers to the possible risk factors, through activities on flip cards to short video clips, which can be paused if need be. 

• How is Asthma diagnosed?

You will be considering how Asthma can be diagnosed, exploring the tests through an accordion activity  and potential results following the ‘National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’ (NICE) guidance, through completion of this lesson. The documents are quite text heavy therefore they are on the PDF to download so that they can be increased in size for your visual comfort and to be able to refer to at a later date if needed.

• Pharmacological terminology and safety advice.

During this lesson you will utilise the safety information supplied by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and explore pharmacological terminology in relation to Asthma, this lesson is very text heavy and all of the information is on the downloadable PDF at the end of this lesson to be enlarged if required for visual comfort. 

*Please note : The Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom ensure medical devices and medication work are acceptably safe and effective.* Please always check your up to date guidance and Protocols.*

• Management of chronic Asthma in adults.

You will have a quick re-cap of what poorly controlled asthma symptoms might be and learn about the management of chronic asthma in adults, including the treatment guidelines provided by the MSEMOC.pdf within this lesson, there are various documents to download for your ease of location if required at  later date.

• Inhalers and spacers.
  

You will gain an understanding of what equipment and information is required, for using the inhalers and spacers that a patient might have by undertaking this lesson. This lesson includes instructions of how to fit the inhalers to the spacer devices and also includes a video link. 

• An introduction to Asthma reviews.

In this lesson you will discover what would be required in order to perform an Asthma review, from the frequency of follow up time scales, to questions and information that will aide the review process. There are various document references for you to utilise as you require and again is rather text heavy with clinical information.

• A suggestive 4 step guide to carrying out an Asthma review.
  

You will learn how to carry out an Asthma review, this is a follow on from the introduction to Asthma reviews from the previous lesson, which could be utilised as the preparation to this review. The information/data that will be demonstrated is specific to SystmOne, therefore you may need to explore the equivalent on the electronic system that your workplace use. There are documents referenced, as with all areas of the NHS you will need to check what is available in your local area.

• Helpful guidance for Asthma control for an Adult 12 years+.

On completion of this lesson you will explore what guidance may be available to be considered for the control of Asthma for an Adult aged 12+ years old. You will learn what is meant by poorly controlled Asthma and what should happen if you identify this in a patient.

• What is a MART regime?
  

On completion of this lesson you will understand what a MART regime is and understand what is involved with this. This is a very quick lesson that explains the function of the inhalers utilised.

• Asthma Care plan.

By the end of this lesson you will understand what information could be included within the Asthma Care plan, the example used is demonstrated within the SystmOne programme and would need to be explored if your workplace uses another operating system. These plans can be developed within your Practice, therefore please work within your workplace guidance and Protocols.

• Additional information/useful resources.

We have provided additional information that you may wish to explore and/or provide to your patients.

• End of course assessment.

This is where you will be able to show off all the information that you have learnt, there is quite a lot, so making notes would benefit you for a quick recap! You will need a pass rate of 80% or more to be able to obtain your certificate, which can be downloaded and printed.

Please be aware that all content within this course is copyright protected ©2024 GP Healthcare Alliance.  

Please scroll down each screen and click ‘continue’ where indicated, also be aware of the arrows or the relevant numbers on the bottom of the screen to ‘click on’ as needed.

Where possible we have provided audio support to utilise if preferred/required but please be aware that there are examples for you to peruse also.

When you are ready to begin, click the “Start Course” button.