Course Overview

This comprehensive one-day COPD Update course is designed for registered healthcare professionals already delivering COPD care within Primary Care settings.

The programme builds on existing clinical experience and focuses on current evidence, evolving guideline recommendations, and complex decision-making in COPD management. Teaching is aligned with NICE NG115 and the latest GOLD strategy updates.

The course emphasises inhaler optimisation, exacerbation risk reduction, personalised pharmacological strategies (including eosinophil-guided ICS use), and the safe management of advanced disease. Participants will explore practical approaches to structured COPD reviews, inhaler switching, and minimising avoidable harm.

Learning is case-based and clinically focused, supporting practitioners in refining COPD services within their practice.

Who Should Attend

This course is suitable for:

Practice Nurses delivering COPD reviews
Advanced Clinical Practitioners
General Practitioners
Primary Care Pharmacists
Respiratory leads within practices or PCNs

Participants should already have experience conducting COPD reviews and prescribing inhaled therapy.

What This Course Covers

Diagnostic and Guideline Refinement

Revisiting COPD diagnostic criteria
Spirometry interpretation refresh
GOLD 2024 patient grouping (A/B/E)
Alignment and differences between GOLD and NICE
Applying guidance safely in Primary Care

Pharmacological Optimisation

LABA, LAMA and ICS combinations
When to initiate triple therapy
Blood eosinophils and ICS decision-making
Avoiding inappropriate ICS use
Inhaler switching and device optimisation
Deprescribing considerations
Polypharmacy and comorbidity

Exacerbation Prevention and Management

Identifying frequent exacerbators
Strategies to reduce lung attacks
Rescue packs and steroid stewardship
Vaccination and pulmonary rehabilitation
Self-management planning
When to escalate or refer

Advanced and End-Stage Disease

Managing severe COPD
Breathlessness management strategies
Long-term oxygen therapy overview
Palliative care considerations
Advance care planning conversations
Holistic, patient-centred approaches

Case-Based Clinical Discussion

Complex patient scenarios
Inhaler optimisation challenges
Comorbidity management
Service improvement discussion

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Apply current GOLD and NICE guidance confidently
Stratify COPD patients by exacerbation risk
Optimise inhaled therapy safely and appropriately
Use eosinophil counts to inform ICS decisions
Reduce exacerbation frequency through structured review
Manage advanced COPD within Primary Care scope
Recognise when referral or palliative input is required

Course Format

Duration: Full-day (approximately 6 hours teaching time)

Delivery: Virtual or face-to-face

Format includes:

Structured teaching sessions
Case-based discussion
Clinical scenario analysis
Peer learning and problem-solving

Certification

Certificate of attendance provided for CPD and revalidation purposes.