How to Teach Cessation of Smoking for Nurses
Cessation of smoking is a subject that nurses can end up teaching as a result of their dealings with patients. Patients who are trying to quit smoking need someone to teach them how to quit and stay off cigarettes. A nurse is an individual the patient can turn to for questions and help, which places the role of teacher on the nurse's shoulders.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Find out which patients are ready to quit smoking. It is impossible to teach smoking cessation to a patient or group not willing to listen. Patients who are ready to quit are usually patients who have tried quitting or are thinking about trying to quit. Find out by asking the patient, or group if teaching in a group setting, about their smoking.
-
2
Prepare information for the patient or group being taught smoking cessation. Nurses often need to reminds patients of the health risks not only to their personal health but also to loved ones like children and spouses. This means having information available. For example, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute points out that 1,000 people die in the United States every day from smoking-related illnesses.
-
-
3
Give the patient or group information about smoking cessation. Teaching smoking cessation requires knowing quit- smoking strategies that a patient can try. For example, suggest nicotine patches to deal with the addictive properties in cigarettes.
-
4
Talk about the benefits of smoking cessation. Benefits include improved health within the first two years and lowered risk of cancers. Knowing all of the benefits to their personal health and the health of loved ones can make quitting more appealing.
-
5
Help the patient identify the reasons for smoking. Smoking is hard to quit, and nurses need to recognize the challenges and then meet the challenges. Possible reasons include addiction, emotional coping of some kind such as coping with stress, social smoking, worries about gaining weight or even smoking to fill time. Knowing the reasons for smoking is the first step in smoking cessation.
-
6
Teach the patient or group about methods to quit smoking. Methods differ based on the reasons the individual continues smoking. Addiction methods include the use of a nicotine patch, gum or similar item to back off the addiction of nicotine slowly while preventing smoking. Other methods include stopping without starting back up again and dealing with the withdrawal symptoms for a few days, slowly lowering smoking until it is no longer needed, teaching weight-loss methods and habit replacement such as eating a carrot when the patient wants to smoke.
-
1
