Bedbugs and consultants are bleeding us dry
Nurses to be trained to teach Buteyko Breathing Technique to asthmatics
A new course to train nurses how to teach the Buteyko Breathing Technique to people with asthma has been launched by Coventry University and the Buteyko Breathing Association.
Included in the British Guidelines on the Management of Asthma this year, the Buteyko Breathing Technique – or Buteyko – is recognised as an effective treatment for asthma, but this is the first time it has been taught in a university setting.
Buteyko is a system of breathing exercises and education based on clinical evidence that asthmatics tend to ‘over-breathe’. It aims to teach people how to breathe less by improving control over their respiratory muscles, increasing tolerance of the feeling of breathlessness, and relaxation.
The new six-day, masters-level course is designed to provide nurses and other health care professionals with the knowledge and experience to teach Buteyko.
Gillian Austin, a clinical specialist physiotherapist at the Lister Hospital in Hertfordshire, has been teaching the technique for more than four years.
‘It is my vision for Buteyko classes to be taught in every hospital, school and health club, and in order to meet this aim many more Buteyko teachers will need to be trained,’ she said.
Anyone interested in attending the six-day course – which will run in June - should contact course leader Julie Sellars or module leader Nicky Knowles
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Readers' comments (4)
Christine Bauman | 3-Feb-2010 1:59 am
As a Buteyko practitioner and trainer, I am deeply concerned that this program for nurses being developed is lacking. A very important component is using Buteyko for one's own health and improved breathing. After this, trainees observe and teach 30 - 50 patients under the trainer's supervision before they are considered safely trained. I urge you to re-visit the curriculum.
T
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Michael Lingard | 29-Mar-2010 1:11 pm
I am delighted to see progress in the provision of the Buteyko Method on the NHS and look forward to the day when every asthma patient may have this as a choice of route. However I do feel anxious about the severely reduced training being given compared with other establish courses.
Perhaps this will be recognized on the course and follow up courses developed to close the gap?
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James Hooper | 9-May-2010 0:27 am
As a Buteyko Instructor since the early '90's, and author of 'The Buteyko Manual for Asthma - How to grow out of Asthma as quickly as humanly possible" in 1996 - I am very pleased to hear that mainstream medicine in picking up on this method.
I wrote the Manual at a time when there was huge demand for the training - and a massive shortage of trained instructors. It was designed as a "not as good as a Workshop - but will still help" tool. At the time it was the first publication that explained clearly "how" to do the method rather than just talk about it.
At the time there was significant outrage from the existing practitioners - as there existed the belief that ONLY trained instructors were both effective and safe.
I disagreed with that assumption then - as I do now. Many thousands have benefited from my book - or from the free chapter of instructions that I give away for children's asthma. For the vast majority of people there is no risk if the simple protocols are followed.
Having a trained instructor - even if only for 8 days - is a huge step up from a simple book.
More importantly I see this as a significant early step in absorption of this information into "accepted" medicine - where it will spread simply because it works. I see the future "Buteyko Instructor" being the parents of infants and the teachers at Kindergartens. "This is how you brush your teeth - this is how you breathe after exertion.."
If the asthmatic process of a 4 year lold can be stopped simply by showing her how to cough differently (and I have done this hundreds of times), and that changes her life from that point on - then bring it on!
Congratulations to Coventry University and the BBA.
James Hooper
Townsville, Australia
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Michael Lingard | 21-May-2010 1:11 am
For anyone wanting to refer patients to a free book source, I do have my book "Escape from Asthma" as a free download on my site http://www.buteykokent.co.uk. As the previous writer says I too wanted to get this simple, effective aid for asthma patients across to as many as possible. There is at present only one Buteyko Practitioner per 50,000 asthma patients! PS NHSOnline.net has discounted courses for NHS staff, thereis no better way of understanding a therapy than using it oneself, we all need some breathing help.
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