Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs to Patients Suffering from COPD

Running head: PULMONARY REHABILITATION TO PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM
COPD 1
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs to Patients Suffering from COPD
Student’s name
Institutional Affiliation

PULMONARY REHABILITATION TO PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM COPD 2
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs to Patients Suffering from COPD or Patients
Suffering from Breathlessness
1) Background
I worked at the Hospital of St Vincent for my research project. The Hospital of St Vincent’s
remains one of the most reputable tertiary organizations of healthcare in all of Australia. The
facility provides patients services including emergency and critical services, acute medical
services, and diagnostics. Other services include residential care, aged care, allied health, and
rehabilitation. The Department of Health and Human Services introduced the Health
Independence Program in 2008 to bring together the four services, which were previously
performed separately. The services included Residential in Reach under common guidelines,
Hospital Admission Risk Program, Post-Acute Care, and Sub-acute Ambulatory Care. The
primary intention of the HIP is the delivery of improved outcomes for the clients and the team of
support to the healthcare facility for proper management and flow of work. The hospital aims to
deliver coordinated and integrated care to the clients across all hospital settings together with the
community interface. It aims to reduce duplication and fragmentation of services and to ensure
client centered planning of care. The project sees the coming together of clinically discrete and
separate teams offering many home, community, and center based rehabilitation and support.
They offer support to clients and their families of care, with chronic diseases, psychosocial issues
and other complex issues.
Various ways can be employed in the prevention of Pneumonia. One of the primary ways is
through proper vaccination. One is expected to get a flu shot every year to prevent them from
acquiring influenza. Flu is one of the main causes of the disease and therefore preventing flu
infection is the best way to prevent pneumonia. Children under the age of 5 years and senior

PULMONARY REHABILITATION TO PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM COPD 3
adults more than 65 years are supposed to vaccination against Pneumococcal pneumonia. It is
also recommended that children and adults who have the risk of developing other infections take
the vaccine. Every patient needs to find out from their physicians the kind of treatment correct
for them. Various other infections can be used in the prevention of Pneumonia and other
infections including chicken pox, measles, and pertussis. Proper hygiene practices like the
washing of hands after visiting the toilet are essential in keeping the disease at bay.
greater bearing and effect on smokers’ bodies. The disease normally follows and manifests like
normal flu infections (Boyle, 2017). Patients need to be keen on it as they might think it is
normal flu infection when it is in fact Pneumonia.
The guidelines made through the collaboration of the Australian government departments
and the Australian agencies charged with medical services developed the mechanisms most
especially for the Australians and the US, however largely they are meant to serve internationally
among diabetic patients (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). In congruence with the service opinion,
the guideline has until now been a helpful resource for nurses and doctors caring for people with
Pneumonia. Due to the extreme sensitivity of the issue at hand and the rate of need for such a
course, there were several mechanisms put into place to ensure the smooth running and the
eventual success of the of the medical practice guidelines (Merrifield, 2016). The need for
adequate expertise saw the increase and expansion of the expert committee to about 120 heath
care professionals and specialists who volunteered from various health sectors across Australia
and the US (Mukasa, 2015). The move was aimed at bringing additional expertise from a broad
scope of medical practice settings so that the issue could be understood from the various angles
to provide the easiest way to the solutions (Rogowski et al., 2013). There was another addition to

PULMONARY REHABILITATION TO PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM COPD 4
the committee to include the people suffering from the said disease so that their views and
preferences regarding the necessary recommendations are taken into consideration.
One of the conditions associated with the infections is pneumonia. The paper hence
examines the role of prevention bundles. Regular exercises, well-balanced diet, and plenty of rest
are essential in keeping the body’s immune system intact (Freser et al., 2017). A drug in the
series of Synagis is usually developed and given to children below one year to help their fragile
immune system. Access to antibiotic and vaccines is the main factor that determines the rate of
child mortality in developing countries (Lakea et al., 2017). Some children die due to lack of
access to proper sanitary towels. Sanitary towels have become a convenient way of maintaining
proper hygiene for the girl child (Hertel, 2016). Pneumonia infection may come about as a
component or may come as a section of a larger infection for example HIV/AIDS. Acquiring
HIV positive weakens one’s immune system.
The project undertaken displays the current pathways and services provided by the St
Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne for a program called pulmonary rehabilitation as a part of their
health Independence Program (Khan et al., 2017). Pulmonary rehabilitation is an intervention
and comprehensive program for the people suffering with chronic lung diseases who usually
suffer from the symptoms of breathlessness. Parasites, fungi, and bacteria are the most common
forms of Pneumonia infection (Grant, 2016). The age of the patient may be helpful in developing
a hypothesis for the sake of variation on diagnostics. Different stages of the infection require a
different approach for treatment and diagnosis. Research speaks of conditions acquired through
the hospital environment (Brown et al., 2014). Health care facilities like hospitals face the
challenge of having to offer their services to many patients. A focus on the number of patients at
the same time compromises the quality of health care services output.