Smoking cessation expert visits MidCentral Health
Smoking cessation expert visits MidCentral Health
11 April 2014
MidCentral Health welcomed Ministry of Health smoking cessation expert Dr Hayden McRobbie to Palmerston North Hospital today. His day was spent with various departments; discussing how MidCentral Health’s already implemented smoking cessation plans could be enhanced.
During his visit, Dr McRobbie met with the Smoking Cessation Taskforce, and toured the hospital, visiting the wards to answer any questions they had. Smoking cessation in mental health was the other focus of his time here, as being smokefree in that area is a more complicated issue than in the general wards.
Being smokefree in mental health is a
certification requirement as well as aligning with our
Smokefree Policy. This visit will provide new ideas on how
to implement this, while keeping the best interests of the
patients and staff in mind. A committed and focused working
group is working toward this goal in the hospital’s acute
in-patient mental health unit. Preparations are well
underway; with information programs and tool-kits being
developed to assist both staff and consumers with the unit
becoming smoke free.
MidCentral Health Director for
Patient Safety and Clinical Effectiveness Muriel Hancock was
pleased to welcome someone with Dr McRobbie’s expertise to
the hospital.
“At MidCentral Health we are doing
everything we can to have a smokefree environment and to
increase our efforts with regard to the smoking cessation
national target that benefits both staff and patients.
Receiving advice from someone as knowledgeable on the
subject as Dr McRobbie is a great boost for our
efforts.”
MidCentral Health is committed to a smokefree
environment and to ensuring that the smoking cessation
target is achieved in all services with continuing efforts
to help patients and staff quit. In the Emergency
Department, triage nurses are asking patients if they smoke,
and if they wish to receive advice on how to quit. In
addition, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) is being
offered to those in the waiting room to help them stop
smoking while on hospital grounds, and hopefully when they
return home.
Staff, and most patients, are already required to be offsite if they wish to smoke, and support is available for them if they wish to quit. As part of this effort, all staff have been issued with cards about how to address the ‘elephant in the room’, providing a three step ABC process of Asking, giving Brief advice, and providing Cessation support.
Ends