Respiratory care is a rapidly changing field in which nurses need to maintain their knowledge of developments in practice. this article explores the scale and impact of respiratory disease today and the contribution nurses c

Respiratory disease is responsible for much acute and chronic ill health with varying degrees of disability. It is the single most common reason why people consult their GP and accounts for a substantial proportion of hospital admissions (DoH 1992). It is difficult to determine exactly how many people have chronic respiratory illness using official mortality and morbidity figures alone, as many do not appear in official statistics.