FEATURE
Due to the nature of a pharmacist’s skills, we are at the forefront of promotion and delivery of this service, and we should ensure that we use our skills in an even more proactive way to both increase the numbers of smokers that we can help, and also to improve those all important quit rates!
> help to begin, facilitate and successfully complete the notoriously difficult process of giving up smoking.
Thus, the role and placement of pharmacy, and particularly community pharmacy, within the patient care network is ideal for the delivery of these services, and we pharmacists should act as the first port of call for those who wish to quit smoking, and also for those who may not have even entertained the thought of stopping yet.
The ability of pharmacists to both identify and deftly communicate with those who may wish to stop smoking, in addition to the ability to provide important support as well as expertise about the wide range of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) available, further cement the position of the pharmacist as one of the most critical players in the reduction in numbers of smokers in our country.
Smoking cessation in Northern Ireland As most pharmacists will be aware, the Northern Ireland Smoking Cessation Service was officially
52
pharmacyinfocus.co.uk
introduced in 2006, fulfilling one of the aims of the DHSSPS initiative “Making it Better – A Strategy for Pharmacy in the Community”(3)
.
The service aims to support smokers who have been assessed by a pharmacist as being motivated to quit, by providing the smoker with behavioural support in addition to NRT on a weekly basis for up to and including 12 weeks.
The service, as a secondary action, also allows for the logging of important information regarding the service, and also the demographics of the enrolled smokers, providing information not only about the success of the programme, but also about those who are making use of it.
Indeed, the programme has proven effective since it’s inception within community pharmacy, with DHSSPSNI statistics suggesting that more smokers set a quit date within a pharmacy than any other healthcare or medical setting, further enforcing the importance of the programme, and it’s value as a service provided within the community setting.
The service has not rested on its laurels however, and has been a constantly evolving entity as the years have progressed. For example, in 2008, targets were set as part of the programme which tessellated with Public Service Agreement aims, which included reducing the proportions of adults and the manual worker subset of this group who smoke to 21% and 25% respectively.
In addition, the Northern Ireland Tobacco Plan has identified core groups for improvement, namely children and young people, pregnant women and disadvantaged adults. As a result, all specialist smoking cessation services, including those operated out of community pharmacies are required and expected to focus on these groups as their primary concern(3)
.
As with all similar programmes which are operated by healthcare professionals, there are a number of quality standards which have been stipulated for the delivery of this programme, and pharmacists should be aware of these, both in terms of ensuring that they contribute well to
the targets which have been detailed, and also (and arguably more importantly) that they are assisting their patients in a appropriate and effective manner.
These quality standards are provided in detail within documents provided by the DHSSPSNI, and include the following:
• Staff providing specialist cessation advice and support should have attended a minimum of a two-day recognised training programme or a recognised training course. Staff should ensure continuing competency in delivering the service and may need to complete refresher training
• The staff providing specialist smoking cessation support should have allocated time to deliver the service.
• Clients should be offered a total individual contact time of at least 1.5 hours, with a minimum of 15 minutes initial consultation. Some of the support may be provided by telephone contact, if more suitable for the client.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64