Teaching a research-based approach to the management of breathlessness in patients with lung cancer

Breathlessness is a common but complex symptom experienced by patients with lung cancer. Corner and colleagues have developed a therapeutic nursing intervention for the management of breathlessness. The Macmillan Practice Development Unit (MPDU) have recently undertaken a multi-centre evaluation of the intervention. The authors were involved in this multi-centre study as clinical practitioners offering the intervention in a randomised control trial. There is strong evidence to suggest that much research fails to influence clinical practice. A commitment to practice development led us to explore the reasons for this research-practice gap. This paper considers the factors that facilitate implementation of research and, in particular, how this applies to the breathlessness intervention. Practitioners need to feel competent in the skills described in the intervention to implement the research findings into their practice. Therefore, we developed a course to teach the breathlessness intervention. A description of the course is presented, together with the theoretical basis for the course design and the tools used to evaluate it.