Fig. 2

SPIRIT flow diagram: Educators’ and patients’ timelines for the schedule of enrolment, interventions, and assessments Derived from the SPIRIT statement [57]. a. Educator timeline Educators will be enrolled and will be asked to complete baseline measurements on the morning of the CE activity (t _{-1, educators} ). Post-CE activity measurements will be undertaken immediately after the CE activity (t _{1, educators} ), for satisfaction and self-report of competence, at 1-month post-activity (t _{2, educators} ), for learning, and at 2-month post-activity (t _{3, educators} ), for performance. Interviews will be conducted among educators 5 months after the CE activity (t _{4, educators} ). b. Patient timeline. Four months after attending either CE activity, educators will perform TPE in COPD patients. Patient outcomes will be measured prior to TPE, at (t _{-1, patients} ). Six months later, at (t _{1, patients} ), post-TPE measurements will be undertaken in COPD patients