COPD Widget screenshot
Campaign Update:
New COPD ‘Widget’ Available For Download
The COPD Learn More Breathe Better campaign is excited to announce the release of a new widget, a web-based tool designed to educate users about COPD with questions and facts that change daily. Help us spread awareness of COPD using this “viral” internet tool. Download the widget for your personal homepage or your organization’s Web site today.
The widget can be added to your Web page or iGoogle page. To add it to iGoogle, click here, then click on the “Add to Google” button. :
Partners in Motion…Breathe New Hampshire
Since the campaign’s inception in 2007, Breathe New Hampshire has served as a campaign partner, raising awareness of COPD among those at risk and helping those diagnosed with the disease learn to manage it more effectively. The non-profit volunteer agency dedicated to lung health and education distributes COPD Learn More Breath Better co-branded fact sheets to local hospitals, pulmonary rehabilitation facilities, partners, patients and caregivers. The organization also features the Learn More Breathe Better e-newsletter on its Web site, encouraging visitors to subscribe and stay up-to-date on campaign activities. During COPD Awareness Month this November, Breathe New Hampshire volunteers will also conduct free lung function screenings.
"Our goal is to increase awareness and understanding of COPD and its risk factors and to emphasize the benefits of early detection and treatment," said Diane Smogor, Vice President of Program Services at Breathe New Hampshire. "As a voluntary health organization, effective partnerships are critical to advancing our mission. It makes such a difference to be able to access high impact, high quality materials and resources from our partners so that our dollars can be used to localize, reproduce, and get the information into the hands of the people who need it.”
To learn more about efforts in New Hampshire, visit www.BreatheNH.org.
Spotlight on…Margaret Lester (Family Nurse Practitioner)
As a nurse practitioner—first in a primary care office and now in a pulmonology practice—and as former Director of Educational Programs at the National Respiratory Training Center (NRTC), Margaret Lester knows first-hand the urgent need for education when it comes to COPD diagnosis and treatment. She also knows the critical role nurse practitioners can play in reaching out to both patients and medical colleagues.
“Coming to terms with any chronic illness is a lengthy process,” Lester says. “In some instances it can take years for a COPD patient to fully understand the diagnosis and accept and integrate the behavioral changes necessary to maximize lung function and maintain quality of life. Nurse practitioners can be invaluable in this regard because we have the ability to spend time talking to patients, answering their questions, and supporting them through their efforts to make critical and often challenging lifestyle changes.”
“Education is incredibly important for both patients and healthcare providers,” Lester continues. “In primary care settings in particular, more nurse practitioners need to have an understanding of COPD, including how to use spirometry for diagnosis and management. They should know how to maximize preventive care and be able to put patients in touch with organizations that provide support. Of course we all need to work on smoking cessation. Community and online resources are also an essential part of the treatment plan”.
In 2001 Lester helped establish the U.S. branch of the NRTC, a non-profit educational organization founded in the United Kingdom in 1987 that works primarily with allied health professionals to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to support the day-to-day management of patients with chronic respiratory illness. NRTC offers a comprehensive three month course on COPD, as well as other accredited and evidence-based training programs and educational resources.
For more information on NRTC’s COPD course, please visit www.nrtc-usa.org and click on “Up-Coming Training Programs.”
Tell us about you! Email us to let us know what your organization is doing on behalf of COPD awareness.
