No Smoking Day: help your patients to quit for life
Today is No Smoking Day – an opportunity for you to offer a brief intervention and professional support to help your patients to quit.
PCRS-UK believes that treating tobacco dependency is the business of every healthcare professional. This is because treating tobacco dependency is the single most cost-effective intervention for the prevention of smoking-related disease and for smokers who have smoking-related diseases.
Our aim is to encourage all healthcare professionals to see tobacco dependency as a long term relapsing condition that starts in childhood.
PCRS-UK Chair Noel Baxter says: “Some of you may be unsure about what you can do now or maybe you are struggling to remain motivated as a result of withdrawal of the services that can help your patients quit tobacco. What everyone can do is get trained to provide effective very brief advice (VBA) an effective intervention that takes only twenty minutes to learn and 30 seconds to deliver.”
What you can do:
- Get an update on the latest evidence about e-cigarettes or learn about implementing smoke-free mental health settings, at the PCRS-UK annual conference, 28-29 September,
- Use the following PCRS-UK resources in your practice:
- An article about the role of the healthcare professional in treating tobacco dependency
- A wall chart which sets out how you can help your patients to quit and how staff can access VBA (Very Brief Advice) training
- An article explaining why a carbon monoxide test is an essential part of every GP and practice nurse's kit
- Direct your patients to the NHS Smokefree website for additional help and support