Self-Regulated Exercise in CF: A Randomized Trial

CF is a life-long illness that requires complex and dynamic adjustment by the patient and family. The nursing role is vital to the multidisciplinary team approach required in providing comprehensive, individualized care for these patients. Nurses facilitate the coordination of health care efforts and support the patient and family across physical and psychosocial domains. With the well-documented correlation between exercise tolerance and both survival and HRQoL, exercise represents a critical treatment focus for CF patients. Nurses contribute to standard exercise rehabilitation programs, through education, psychosocial support, and communication. In this exercise training study, the nursing role will include: a) teaching the patients and families how to use the OMNI scale, b) confirming that they understand the home-based exercise regimen, and c) ensuring that the home-care program is properly followed by placing weekly telephone calls to assess progress and barriers. Long-term nursing application will occur via dissemination of the OMNI training manual, to be developed as part of this study, for use by CF nurses in clinics worldwide.