Question
What is the respiratory therapist's role in smoking cessation?
Answer
How can we help these individuals?
- Know your facts and stay up-to-date.
- Become knowledgeable about the programs in your area.
- Never approach smoking cessation from a nagging or scolding perspective.
- Offer encouragement even when they have failed in the past.
- Help them determine their “why”? Why they should quit or why they believe that can’t or shouldn’t quit.
- Set attainable goals.
What is our role? How can we help these individuals? Our role is to make sure that we are prepared and have the right facts. We need to be up-to-date and knowledgeable about the programs in our specific area or online. We need to help them know where they can seek help.
We never want to approach smoking cessation from a nagging or a scolding perspective. For a long time, we said, "It's bad for you. Do not do it." I feel like smokers already recognize that and do not want you to judge them. Whenever I was teaching, you could tell from the beginning if someone was invested. For example, one woman said, "I'm just here because my insurance makes me." She was not interested in quitting. She did not want to know anything about her why or her quit date, She was only there to satisfy a requirement. There is a readiness to quit scale from one to 10. One is "I'm not ready," and 10 is "I'm ready." If they are not invested they may not make a 10, but they may move up from a 1 to a 2. Then, you have been successful as you moved them up that scale.
We want to set goals that are attainable. Maybe, our goal is for the client not to quit within the next six months but to significantly decrease the amount that they are smoking. Instead, the goal for the client may be to completely quit within a year. We want them to help determine their "why." "Why do you want to quit?" Or, if you have got those individuals that are dead set on not quitting, help them identify why that is. I had one individual whose "why" was his wife told him he could buy a boat if he quit. I encouraged him in those 10 minutes while he was delaying his urges to smoke to get out his phone and look up facts/information about that boat. He was excited about that so the 10 minutes passed by in no time.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Tobacco Management and Smoking Cessation, presented by Jessica Fino, EdD, RRT.
