Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSNurses need more smoking cessation training
Nearly a third of nurses don’t know how best to help smokers quit, research suggests.
Almost half of those surveyed felt that they lacked knowledge of anti-smoking products.
National Stop Smoking trainer Lisa Fendall said: “The problem is smoking cessation isn’t part of nurses’ mandatory training it if was and they received annual updates they would have a basic understanding.
“It’s always a problem getting into secondary care to train nurses and midwifes. I think it’s the timescale in that they are very pushed and they can’t always leave the ward to attend the training,” she added.
In the survey by Opinion Health, 27% of nurses said they were not familiar with the use of therapeutic nicotine in combination therapy (NRT). A treatment recommended by NICE and the Department of Health (DH).
A DH spokesperson said: “The Department provides a number of free resources to health care professionals to support them in giving up to date evidence based advice and support.”
NICE spokesman added: “NICE has a team of implementation consultants based throughout England. The field team keeps in regular touch with NHS organisations and local authorities involved in the implementation of NICE guidance.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 7-Mar-2010 8:28 am
The problem is not only lack of appropriate training but of follow up smoking cessation support for target groups. I work with young people age 11-18 and they don't necessarily want to sit in a group with older adults, or attend their GP for support.
There is a brief intervention training available , but it falls down if there are no specific services for young people to sgnpost to.
I have also found colleagues who don't find talking about smoking cessation as important as talking about drugs or alcohol
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