Despite the abundance of evidence-based methods for treating tobacco use, research indicates that nearly half of the patients who visited a healthcare provider in the past year were not advised to quit smoking, and the majority of those who attempted to quit were not offered evidence-based cessation treatment. This article explores a quality improvement project that translated the latest evidence-based recommendations into practice to enhance the screening and treatment of tobacco users at a rural primary care clinic. A standardized, evidence-based protocol that utilized existing, free resources was implemented and assessed over three months. Results were compared to baseline data from the three months prior to the practice change. Screening, treatment, and follow-up for tobacco users improved after the QI project. Patient screening increased from 80.1% at baseline to 99.4% post-intervention, while tobacco cessation interventions by providers for active smokers rose from 63.6% to 90.1%. The authors discuss how nurses can apply findings from this QI project to enhance their use of evidence-based tobacco cessation interventions in daily practice and assist patients in quitting smoking.
Joyner et al. (Thu,) studied this question.