Want to watch this video? Sign up for the course here. Or enter your email below to watch one free video.

Unlock This Video Now for FREE

This video is normally available to paying customers.
You may unlock this video for FREE. Enter your email address for instant access AND to receive ongoing updates and special discounts related to this topic.



One problem with inhalers is learning how to use them, and this could be if you're an asthma sufferer or if you're an instructor trying to teach about using asthma inhalers. We're now going to look at an asthma inhaler trainer. The actual trainer itself, simple unit, it's got a mouthpiece and you simply push the mouthpiece onto the inhaler and at the top here is just a push button, which simulates pushing down on the canister in an asthma inhaler. When you push down you hear the hiss and you can even take the inhaler out and you can place it back in. The key thing with it is making sure that the line is lined up with the peg, it's just so it works properly. Don't normally do that but it just means that you can line the canister up to make sure it functions correctly. To test it, to start with, just push down once and then the inhaler's ready to use.

To actually use the inhaler we need to seal their mouth around the mouthpiece, and to start with we just need to blow out. Once we've blown out we just hold that and then we need to breathe in until you hear the whistle, when you hear the whistle push down on the inhaler, which will cause the air to come through and then you carry on breathing in for five seconds and then hold that breath. To show you the noise, put your mouth on it and just breathe in, so just showing you that in real time, once you start hearing the noise. You breathe in once you start hearing the noise and then you push the inhaler to let the gas out and hold that breath in, keep breathing in for five seconds, don't keep pumping on the asthma inhaler, just push it once because you need to get the drug into the system, which is why we continue to breathe in. We need to breathe in really deep, which is why we breathe in over a five second period, that means that the drug gets to right inside the alveoli in the lungs and the drug can give the maximum effect.

While using this type of trainer, you can train at any time, it doesn't matter how many times you do it. However, if you are dealing with someone with asthma, obviously make sure that they're not in any distress at the time because you are making them force their breathing in using the trainer. It's a very simple, effective training device. We've popped these onto the shop area of our websites if you look down on the bottom of the page of the shop if you want to buy them if not, these are given out by asthma nurses and doctors if you're an asthma sufferer.

Finally, with the asthma trainer there comes full instructions, so it's multilingual instructions, you just run through, it tells you every single stage of what to do. The other key thing with these is if you're using them with different people then you need to make sure that you sanitize them correctly. If not, have one per person or you can just buy individual mouthpieces or you can just clean these in Milton or using antiseptic wipes.