Educational practice for inhaled treatments in French cystic fibrosis care centers.
Inhaled treatments are very common in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. We sent a questionnaire to the 49 French Cystic Fibrosis Care Centers (CFCCs) to see how the inhalation technique of CF patients was initiated and monitored (composition and formation of a potential educational team, use of a manual for use, amount of devices available for demonstration, education to disinfection procedure, realization and frequency of the inhalation technique monitoring, use of the patient's own device, and frequency of checking when a pediatric patient transfers to an adult CFCC). Results were expressed in percent and compared with the test of the difference between two correlated proportions. Education for aerosol therapy was not performed in about 20% of the CFCCs. A specific educational member was present in 33 CFCCs (68%). CFCCs owned statistically less nebulizers for demonstration than other devices. Disinfection advices were always given for nebulizers, but less frequently for spacers (80%) and dry powder inhalers (50%). The inhalation technique was monitored less than once a year or never in 22% of the cases, and rarely with the patient's own material. This monitoring was device dependent (56% with nebulizers vs. 76% with the other devices, p < 0.05). For nebulizers, monitoring depended on the presence of an educational member (p < 0.01) and of a manual for use (p = 0.03). When transferring to an adult CFCC, the inhalation technique was checked in less than a third of the patients. The inhalation technique is poorly and insufficiently initiated and monitored in CF patients. Educational teams and programs are urgently required.
Clavel
Aurélie
A
Unité de Médecine Infantile et EA3287-IFR125, CHU Timone-Enfants, 13385 Marseille Cedex 5, France.
Deschildre
Antoine
A
Ravilly
Sophie
S
Simeoni
Marie-Claude
MC
Dubus
Jean-Christophe
JC
D000328:Adult; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012138:Respiratory Therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires