An opportunity arose for research with the Nottingham China Health Institute linked to the University Of Nottingham and UNNC campus Ningbo. The proposal was to develop a new hospital discharge package for inpatients with an acute exacerbation of COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in Ningbo. The prevalence of COPD in China is 13.6% and the experience of visiting the hospital previously is that acute admission is frequent and often repeated. There are large numbers of patients.
There is currently very little advice on admission/ discharge , no pulmonary rehabilitation and no community services. There is a pressing need to improve care and outcomes . These must be future proof and culturally acceptable.
The proposal is to place a senior nurse on the respiratory ward to detail current practice and explore how a discharge package including elements of pulmonary rehab might be acceptable to patients and staff. Including smoking cessation, what the patients want, what patients might do, what the the staff think, is there potential for app, smartphone technologies and chat bots to support longer term and is this financially acceptable.
PICS has kindly granted study leave to Alison Sutherland to go to China in June 2019 to scope the project out. Working with Prof Richard Hubbard (Nottingham),Prof Sally Singh ( Leicester) and Rachael Murray ( assoc Prof Nottingham) she is excited to get this opportunity!