The following information on pulmonary rehabilitation is taken from NZ COPD guidelines 2021(external link), accessed March 2021:
Pulmonary rehabilitation should be offered to all patients with COPD. Although there may be barriers to attending pulmonary rehabilitation classes, there are a variety of ways to deliver pulmonary rehabilitation to patients in different settings depending on local respiratory services and patient preferences. |
Pulmonary rehabilitation for people with COPD(external link) BPAC, NZ, 2017
- Pulmonary rehabilitation is an umbrella term for a structured programme which offers supervised exercise and education to patients with COPD, usually over a period of eight weeks
- Pulmonary rehabilitation is known to relieve dyspnoea and fatigue, improve mental health and quality of life, and increase the sense of control that patients with COPD have over their health while reducing their risk of hospitalisation
- All symptomatic patients with COPD will benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation, particularly:
- At diagnosis
- After discharge from hospital following an exacerbation
- When symptoms are progressively deteriorating
- Health professionals may need to use creative strategies to adapt the basic components of pulmonary rehabilitation for patients unable to attend formal programmes.