We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
Setting
This audit took place on a general adult treatment ward but would be applicable to in-patient wards across all psychiatric specialties.
Background
It has been recognised for more than 10 years that smoking cessation interventions delivered through the National Health Service (NHS) are a cost-effective way of preserving life and reducing ill-health (West et al, 2000). Nicotine replacement therapy has been shown to double cessation rates in placebocontrolled trials (Luty, 2002). In line with smoking bans across the UK (March 2006 in Scotland, April 2007 in Northern Ireland and Wales, and July 2007 in England), most NHS trusts should have policies in place for psychiatric patients who smoke, and offer smoking cessation support as part of a package of care. In Nottingham (where this audit was conducted), training on smoking cessation with information about the health benefits, stages of change and available support as well as training in brief interventions is mandatory for all clinical staff who work within the trust.
Standards
Standards that are relevant to in-patients (in any hospital) were obtained from the updated Royal College of Physicians’ guidelines (West et al, 2000):
ᐅ Hospitals should maintain readily accessible records on the current smoking status of patients.
ᐅ In-patients who smoke should be advised to stop as early as possible in the admission and this should be recorded on a readily accessible form and repeated annually.
ᐅ Specialist cessation counsellors should provide behavioural support for hospital patients who want help to stop smoking.
ᐅ Smokers should be encouraged to consider nicotine replacement therapy, where appropriate, and assisted with this.
Method
Data collection
The medical notes, nursing notes and drug charts of all patients under the care of an in-patient ward were examined for documentation of the following:
ᐅ the patient's smoking status, recorded on admission
ᐅ type of tobacco and amount smoked
ᐅ for patients who smoke, any record that smoking cessation has been discussed
ᐅ for patients who express a wish to stop smoking or to cut down:
▹ any offer of behavioural support
▹ the prescription of nicotine replacement therapy.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
