An Educational Intervention to Improve Disease Management Knowledge of Hospitalized Patients With COPD

A prospective cohort study utilizing a pre-test/post-test design will be used to test a COPD education intervention on a convenience sample of 30 patients with a diagnosis of COPD. Study participants will complete the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease questionnaire (COPD-Q) to assess their COPD knowledge. Next, a respiratory therapist will provide the first scripted COPD education session. The patient will complete the COPD-Q 24 hours and 30 days post-discharge. Demographic data, smoking status, pack-years, COPD spirometry grade, COPD symptom and exacerbation grade, previous hospital admissions, support system for managing COPD, attendance at previous formal education for COPD, current and home medications, pulmonary function test (PFT) results, vaccinations, and level of education data will be collected. Data related to patient recruitment will also be collected. Means and standard deviation will be reported for interval data. Total frequency and percentages will be reported for nominal data, and median and 25th and 75th percentile will be reported for COPD severity. Repeated measures ANOVA (p< 0.05) will be used to evaluate if an inpatient COPD self-management intervention can increase the patient's knowledge of COPD after 24 hours and again at 30 days after the initial education session.

This study is expected to show that an inpatient education of COPD can increase the patient's COPD knowledge prior to discharge and that it will be retained for at least one month post-discharge.