Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit checklist

Exercise plays an important role in both a person’s physical and mental health. It is widely recognised that exercise improves wellbeing and can help reduce chronic lung disease or lung cancer symptoms, such as breathlessness. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a six to eight week exercise and education program that teaches people with chronic lung disease or lung cancer the skills they need to stay well and out of hospital.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit checklist is a resource as part of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit, which highlights the key features of a pulmonary rehabilitation program, including advice on conducting patient assessments, designing an evidence-based exercise program, topics for patient education sessions, how to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, and maintenance programs.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit is a resource for health professionals to design and deliver an evidence-based pulmonary rehabilitation program to benefit people managing a chronic lung disease or lung cancer. The Toolkit is a step-by-step guide with practical, evidence-based guidance and includes the following information:

• Getting Started - the Australian and New Zealand Pulmonary Rehabilitation Guidelines and steps for establishing a pulmonary rehabilitation service.
• Patient Assessment – assess your patient’s exercise capacity, quality of life and shortness of breath.
• Exercise Training - exercise prescription for participants.
• Patient Education - education topics and resources.
• Patient Re-Assessment – evaluate your patient outcomes and the effectiveness of your service.
• Additional Resources – get access to all the resources and information you need.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation Network – aim for health professionals to share important updates, provide a forum for sharing ideas, facilitate peer support, and promote increased access to pulmonary rehabilitation across Australia.

All of the resources included in the Toolkit are based on the evidence-based pulmonary rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines. Further information on setting up and implementing a pulmonary rehabilitation program is available at www.pulmonaryrehab.com.au.

For further information contact our Information and Support Centre on 1800 654 301 or email pulmonaryrehabilitation@lungfoundation.com.au.