What is it about?
This paper reports the findings from a qualitative study that explored patients and healthcare professionals perceptions of oxygen therapy. The study was conducted with an aim to identify why, despite evidence based guidelines, oxygen therapy is not always administered appropriately, sometimes to the detriment of patients. The study found that a set of fixed beliefs regarding oxygen exist, influenced by several impacting factors. Fundamentally both groups viewed oxygen as a panacea. Patients used oxygen for breathlessness and as an enabler; they were grateful to oxygen and accepted it as part of the disease. HCPs used oxygen because it helps patients; it works; and it makes HCPs feel better. But oxygen is not benign and a burden is evident and potential antecedents to beliefs were revealed. The perception that oxygen is a universal remedy presides, but is, at times, contradictory, when benefits are countered by adverse effects.
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Why is it important?
This is the first time that perceptions of oxygen therapy have been reported and findings will be important in supporting strategies to raise awareness of entrenched cultures, influencing future educational and research strategies, and informing policy.
Perspectives
The misconceptions and related expectations of oxygen therapy need to be challenged more confidently in order to ensure safe and effective practice. This study has highlighted that there is a need to raise public awareness of potentially harmful effects of oxygen; the image of oxygen as a panacea needs to be broken and media, particularly TV, could play a central role in this.
Dr Carol A Kelly
Edge Hill University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A wolf in sheep's clothing? Patients’ and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of oxygen therapy: An interpretative phenomenological analysis, The Clinical Respiratory Journal, November 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/crj.12571.
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