Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking has become increasingly popular throughout the world in recent years. Although many individuals love the act and sensation of smoking, it has major health consequences for both smokers and others around them. This paper begins by providing a brief history of tobacco and how different people perceive it; the report then goes on to detail the consequences of tobacco on individual health. Furthermore, it evaluates the roles and responsibilities of nurses in helping and protecting adults in and from developing diseases related to smoking of tobacco. It further lays out the health needs and priorities of a defined adult population basing on both local and national health data. Consequently, these needs pave the way for the evaluation of public health intervention application and its effectiveness in addressing the tobacco-related health issues. Additionally, the report will seek to identify a health promotion model and clarify its significance in incorporating it in public health interventions. Finally, the report winds up by stating the implications of tobacco based on both collected data findings and previous literature studies, and, thus, systematic ways are recommended to provide guidelines for future research in the same field if the need arises.
Introduction
According to Viswanath et al. (2010, p. 3430), a drug can be defined as a substance that modifies the physiological function of a living organism when absorbed into their system. Therapeutic purposes such as relaxation are significant drivers that entice many individuals to indulge in the smoking of tobacco. A large percentage of smokers are young people (Gov.uk 2017). According to the scientific explanations, nicotine stimulates the production of a feel-good chemical in the brain reward centre that leads to the addiction. Smoking of cigarette is one of the leading causes of deaths in the whole world according to the global data on tobacco smoking.
Stroke and coronary heart diseases
Stroke and coronary heart diseases are the primary threats to smokers (Gov.uk 2017). Additionally, smoking causes lung diseases by damaging the airways and alveoli (Parkin, Boyd and Walker 2011). Furthermore, it causes cancer in almost all parts of the body such as lungs. According to Levy and Currie (2012, p.206), smoking accelerates rates of death among cancer survivors and patients. To the smoking women, their ability to get pregnant is greatly compromised (Nhs.uk 2015). Siu (2015, p.630) further says that smoking affects men's sperms, which can consequently increase infertility and congenital disabilities. This report aims at creating awareness on the hazardous effects of tobacco smoking. It also seeks to establish the engagement of professionals such as nurses in tobacco cessation as well as finding out effective public intervention methods curbing tobacco-related diseases.
Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses in Smoking Cessation
Community health nurses are specialised professionals that seek to promote health awareness among families, individuals, and groups. There are many community nursing roles since their goal is to provide health to everyone. Whitehead (2011, p.491) says that community nurses are also managers tasked with the obligation of planning depending on the medical needs or nursing of the patient. Thus, they can help to prepare tobacco smokers for health education. They assess and coordinate needs and develop health promotion techniques that aid in tobacco cessation. Additionally, they provide encouragement, advice and support services to the community members on the hazards of tobacco smoking to their health (Gov.uk 2017). They have been also involved in the provision of extension services such as creating awareness about tobacco and other highly abused drugs among institutional settings such as schools. Furthermore, they provide nursing care to the individuals affected by tobacco-related diseases as well as patients who are in the process of quitting this behaviour (Gov.uk 2015). Finally, community nurses establish seminars and workshops to promote healthy living standards apart from tobacco drug abuse among the members of the population. According to Rice and Stead (2008), one of the main aims of community health nurses is to achieve high health level for the community, and as simple step of doing this is through primary health care whereby nurses are charged with emphasising on prevention of diseases related to tobacco smoking rather than curative aspects related to it.
Assessment of Health Care Needs in the Community
According to Tengland (2012, p.145), assessment of health care needs is the organized method of pointing out unmet health requirements of a given community and making proper alterations to attain them. Such needs involve both epidemiological and qualitative approach to finding out the main concerns that combine clinical perspective of the patients and cost efficiency (Schultz 2011). Therefore, this strategy should develop a balance among clinical, ethical, and economic considerations. Due to rising cases of tobacco smoking among adults, health needs and priorities such as disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and health education have become common (Gov.uk 2015). Research has shown that these health needs provide methods of observing and encouraging equity in allocations and health services utilisation, as well as sorting out the inequality issue in health among the population (Gov.uk 2015). Due to the naivety of the older people in the society to the negative impacts of smoking, health education is the key measure to be undertaken in making them aware of the diseases related to smoking.
Public Health Interventions for Tobacco Smoking
Prevention First
According to Allender, Rector and Warner (2013), tobacco remains to be the most addictive drug taken in adulthood. Majority of teens are becoming dependent faster than they can understand associated health risks (Gov.uk 2015). Therefore, discouraging them from smoking using media campaigns remains to be the most effective intervention method in the modern health sectors (Nice.org.uk 2017). Research shows that since its enactment, the prevalence of smoking in society have reduced by approximately 10%.
Supporting Smokers to Quit
According to Bell and McNaughton (2011), dependence on tobacco is the hardest thing to eradicate. Thus, a smoker will have to make several attempts before finally quitting. Owing to the high financial requirements, nurses have to offer adequate support to help smokers end the addiction. Bell and McNaughton (2011) assert that smokers who get support find it easier to quit than those who embark on the process independently. However, research shows that this method is ineffective.
Effective Enforcement
From the study, it was evident that one of the established effective means of reducing smoking is through maintaining high duty rates on tobacco products. Additionally, an incentive should be provided to those who smoke, which will also give a discouragement to teens from taking up smoking at early stages,
Eliminating Variation in Smoking Rates
As support given to smokers reduces the smoking incidences, it is a critical responsibility of the whole healthcare system. The experience of the smokers from diseases and poor health makes them suitable for de-campaigning tobacco smoking. According to Viswanath et al. (2010, p.3430), improving the health outcomes of smokers is the practical approach clinicians can take to promote smoking cessation. Therefore, smokers should be offered a piece of advice on how to quit the behaviour (Nice.org.uk 2015). They should then be directed to support and relevant rehabilitation centers throughout their health system.
Smoking Policy
Most of the current policies aim at reducing the prevalence of tobacco smoking. For instance, the UK government has established a policy on controlling smoking of cigarettes in public. The department of health has specified objectives towards the policy, which include minimising smoking among the adolescents from 8% to 3%. In adults, the policy seeks to reduce smoking incidents from 15.5% to 12%. With the goal of creating a smoke-free nation, the government have rolled out a plan that includes making smoking to be less affordable by introducing high taxation on it, banning of press and TV advertising of tobacco, although it may be likely to promote cigarettes by displaying it in retailer shops, all displays deemed to be eye-catching have been also banned in all shops (Gov.uk. 2015). Moreover, development of anti-smoking campaigns has been aimed at stopping teens from taking up smoking, encourage smokers to try quitting smoking through the most effective way and most importantly creating awareness of health dangers of smoking. Additionally, smoking has been banned in almost all places which are enclosed including public places and workplaces (Gov.uk 2015). Instead, the government is encouraging e-cigarettes, which have reduced risks to health.
Health Promotion Model
A widely used health promotion model is an intervention-based one created by Andrew Tanhill in the 1980s. It provides a framework that describes the linkages between health protection, prevention, and health education. This model can be graphically represented by overlapping circles. Health education is aimed at changing the beliefs, knowledge, behaviour, and attitudes in such a manner that facilitates proper healthy living. Disease prevention is designed to decrease risk factors and minimize any possible effects. It comprises of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. According to Whitehead (2011, p.295), health protection focuses on legal and fiscal policies, control and voluntary codes of practice aimed at curbing ill health such as those arising from tobacco smoking as well as enhancing well-being through making people aware of hazards of tobacco smoking. Whitehead (2011, p.295) emphasises that health protection includes public policies that lay down access to employment, housing, health care, and education.
Moreover, Whitehead (2011, p.295) claims that there have been investments in specialists smoking cessations within disease prevention section as part of the overlapping spheres. On the other hand, health education has elevated awareness of dangers of both active and passive smoking. It has also encouraged smokers to utilise smoking cessation service. Furthermore, it has supported tobacco control measures among the public and other decision makers.
Conclusion
Basing on the above evidence, it is possible to conclude that tobacco smoking is hazardous to a person’s health. In smoke-free nations, a proposal for united and harmonised efforts in helping addicted individuals is expected to raise the significance of nurses in smoking cessation. The role nurses are expected to advance will be more influential for tobacco patients since the former are most likely to be taking records of the status of smoking among patients while providing them with brief interventions. The assessments of evidence on public health interventions should include not only the integrity of evidence but also wholeness and transferability. The evaluation of intervention efficacy should be matched to the stage of that intervention. Since values and concepts are likely to differ across local versus national levels of intervention, the empirical study can identify these differences; therefore, more health promotion research should be oriented towards this end.
References
Allender, J., Rector, C. and Warner, K., 2013. Community & public health nursing: promoting the public’s health. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, pp. 10-12.
Bell, K., Salmon, A. and McNaughton, D., 2011. Alcohol, tobacco, obesity and the new public health. [Online] Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09581596.2010.530642 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Gov.uk. 2015. Health matters: smoking and quitting in England - GOV.UK. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-smoking-and-quitting-in-england/smoking-and-quitting-in-england [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Gov.uk. 2017. Smoking and tobacco: applying All Our Health - GOV.UK. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smoking-and-tobacco-applying-all-our-health/smoking-and-tobacco-applying-all-our-health [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Levy, D.T., Currie, L. and Clancy, L., 2012. Tobacco control policy in the UK: blueprint for the rest of Europe? The European Journal of Public Health, 23(2), pp.201-206. [Online] Available at: https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article-abstract/23/2/201/682561 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Nice.org.uk. 2017. Smoking: preventing uptake in children and young people. Guidance and guidelines. NICE. [Online] Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph14 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Nice.org.uk. 2015. Smoking: reducing and preventing tobacco use. Guidance and guidelines. NICE. [Online] Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs82 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Nhs.uk. 2015. What are the health risks of smoking? - Health questions - NHS Choices. [Online] Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2344.aspx?CategoryID=53 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Parkin, D.M., Boyd, L. and Walker, L.C., 2011. 16. The fraction of cancer attributable to lifestyle and environmental factors in the UK in 2010: Summary and conclusions. British journal of cancer, 105 (Suppl 2), p.S77. [Online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3252065/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Rice, V.H. and Stead, L.F., 2010. Nursing interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev., 1. [Online] Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001188.pub3/full [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Schultz, A.S., 2011. Nursing and tobacco reduction: a review of the literature. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 40(6), pp.571-586. [Online] Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748903000385 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Siu, A.L., 2015. Behavioral and Pharmacotherapy Interventions for Tobacco Smoking Cessation in Adults, Including Pregnant Women: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement USPSTF Recommendation Statement for Interventions for Tobacco Smoking Cessation. Annals of internal medicine, 163(8), pp.622-634. [Online] Available at: http://annals.org/aim/article/2443060/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Tengland, P.A., 2012. Behavior change or empowerment: on the ethics of health-promotion strategies. Public Health Ethics, 5(2), pp.140-153. [Online] Available at: https://academic.oup.com/phe/article-abstract/5/2/140/1491548 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Viswanath, K., Herbst, R.S., Land, S.R., Leischow, S.J. and Shields, P.G., 2010. Tobacco and cancer: an American Association for Cancer Research policy statement. Cancer research, 70(9), pp.3419-3430. [Online] Available at: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/70/9/3419.short [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
Whitehead, D.Tanhill, 2011. Evaluating health promotion: a model for nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 41(5), pp.490-498. [Online] Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02556.x/full [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].
