Comparative Perspective of Pulmonary Rehabilitation among Nurses, Physical Therapists,Occupational Therapists, and Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists.

摘要

PURPOSE: This study aims to describe differences in knowledge, practice and recognition of pulmonary rehabilitation between twogroups of health care professionals; the nurse group and the therapist group.METHOD: A self-oriented questionnaire was delivered to two groups of the subjects: one group (nurse group) included 22 nurses andanother group (therapist group) included 5 physical therapists, 3 occupational therapists, and 2 speech-language-hearing therapists in ahospital. Pearson’ χ2 method was used to compare knowledge, practice and recognition of pulmonary rehabilitation between the twogroups.RESULTS and DISCUSSION: The therapist group had higher knowledge on all items of pulmonary rehabilitation, whereas the nursegroup had higher knowledge on only three items; “guidance of abdominal breathing,” “bronchial drainage,” “breath assistance methods.”The same results were observed on practice of pulmonary rehabilitation. About 80% of all subjects responded that a team approach wasan important method to deliver pulmonary rehabilitation to patients; however, about 70% of them reported that cooperation of nurses andtherapists was not achieved in their hospitals. In order to deliver comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation to patients, effectivecooperation by all health care professionals, including nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language-hearingtherapists, should be encouraged.