LEVEL 2. EXPLORE BEST PRACTICE

Introduction

BREATH (November 2022 – October 2025) was an Erasmus+ KA220-HED project coordinated by the University of Opole with partners in Lithuania, Croatia, Portugal, Italy and Spain. It addressed the absence of interdisciplinary training on physical activity for patients with chronic respiratory conditions in health professions curricula, producing a peer-reviewed open-access ebook comparing the six national contexts, a transnational database of good and poor practices, and a free modular e-learning platform.

The Challenge

What social issue does it address?

A structural deficit in the training trajectories of health professionals. In all six participating countries, curricula in physiotherapy, physical activity, sports science and nursing lack systematic, evidence-based and interdisciplinary content on physical activity promotion for patients with chronic respiratory conditions, so graduates enter the workforce underprepared to design interventions for this population.

Why is it important?

The burden falls on patients: those who cannot reach appropriately trained professionals face preventable complications, repeated hospitalisations and deteriorating quality of life. It weighs most heavily on older adults, people with multiple comorbidities and those in systems with limited access to specialised rehabilitation.

How does it contribute to the BRIDGE Challenge?

It addresses Level A Challenge 3 at both pre-service and in-service level, supplying the transnational standards, shared knowledge base and open digital resources whose absence keeps the gap in place, and making them usable without redesigning existing degree programmes.

How does it work?

Three phases. Each partner reviewed its national epidemiology, health service organisation and rehabilitation pathways, and the six reviews were synthesised into a comparative publication. A structured database then collected successful and unsuccessful experiences in this field. Finally an e-learning platform was built in thematic modules, piloted and refined through user evaluation before publication.

What might inspire you?

Ideas for adaptation

1. Compare national contexts before writing shared content, so local diversity stays visible.
2. Collect the practices that failed: they teach as much as the ones that worked.
3. Build modules that slot into an existing curriculum without redesigning it.
4. Use open licensing as an equity tool, not as a dissemination formality.
5. Give teaching materials an ISBN and peer review, so that they count academically.
6. Pilot resources with students, lecturers and practitioners before publishing them.
7. Connect a curricular gap to the patients who end up paying for it.
8. Say plainly what your evidence does not yet show.
9. Include dietetics and communication in a clinical training programme.
10. Tailor exercise guidance to the stage of the disease, not to the diagnosis alone.

Resources created