Purpose and scope
The purpose of this best practice guideline (BPG) is to provide best practices for tobacco interventions for nurses and other health-care providers across all care settings, with evidence-based recommendations related to assessment and interventions for adults who use tobacco.
The scope includes all forms of commercial tobacco and is not limited to smoking alone. The recommendations will help nurses and other health-care providers gain the knowledge required to screen all clients for tobacco use, implement an intervention plan with individuals who use tobacco, treat or refer clients, add tobacco use content to enhance health professional education programs, ensure tobacco intervention curriculum is facilitated by trained and skilled educators, and advocate for smoke- and vape-free policies in health-care delivery settings and in the community.
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Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. (2017). Integrating Tobacco Interventions into Daily Practice (3rd ed.) Toronto, ON: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.
Recommendations
Do you want to learn about and implement the most- up-to-date evidence-based recommendations on this topic with your colleagues? Download and share the full best practice guideline (BPG), Integrating Tobacco Interventions into Daily Practice.
See below for a snapshot of the recommendations from this BPG. We strongly suggest you review the full BPG before implementing the recommendations and good practice statements. The BPG also includes further resources to support implementation and evaluation.
Recommendation 1.1: Use brief interventions to screen all clients for all forms of tobacco use and initiate intervention as appropriate.
Recommendation 2.1: Develop a person-centred tobacco intervention plan with the client.
Recommendation 3.1: Provide clients with, or refer them to, intensive interventions and counselling on the use of pharmacotherapy, if they use tobacco and express an interest in reducing or quitting their tobacco use.
Recommendation 3.2: Treat or refer all pregnant or postpartum women at every encounter for intensive behavioural counselling for tobacco harm reduction, cessation, and relapse prevention, in conjunction with nicotine replacement therapy, on a case by case basis.
Recommendation 4.1: Evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention plan until the client’s goals are met.
Recommendation 5.1: Incorporate evidence-based content on tobacco interventions in health-care professional education programs.
Recommendation 5.2: Ensure delivery of the tobacco intervention curriculum is facilitated by educators who are trained and skilled in the field of tobacco use interventions.
Recommendation 6.1: Advocate with policy-makers at all levels of government for comprehensive smoke- and vape-free legislation and enforcement in the community.
Recommendation 6.2: Implement and enforce comprehensive tobacco-free policies in all health-care delivery settings and with all clients, including in-patients and out-patients, as well as with permanent and contract staff.
Recommendation 6.3: Embed tobacco use prompts in health records/ documentation to facilitate addressing tobacco interventions during health-care visits.
Recommendation 6.4: Evaluate tobacco intervention programs and services.
Disclaimer: These guidelines are not binding for nurses, other health providers or the organizations that employ them. The use of these guidelines should be flexible and based on individual needs and local circumstances. They constitute neither a liability nor discharge from liability. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents at the time of publication, neither the authors nor the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) gives any guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in them or accepts any liability with respect to loss, damage, injury or expense arising from any such errors or omission in the contents of this work.
