Despite its serious complications, cigarette smoking is common among young adults. In the US, nearly 44 million young people are smokers. While 33 percent of these smokers may die from tobacco-associated diseases, adopting an appropriate health promotion approach is critical to the future of advanced nurse roles (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). Despite their healthy nature, young people are subjected to social influences, which include homicide, suicide, homelessness, and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. As stated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2008), the emergence of new modes of communication will expose young people to increased tobacco use. Monitoring trends in cigarette smoking and the associated complications is significant in addressing the presented challenge. This paper will propose cigarette cessation as a health promotion plan to address smoking in young adults.
The recent past has seen an increased addiction to cigarettes among young adults. Since most of these adults are at the college level, cigarette smoking has greatly affected not only their health but also their educational objectives. The main goal of the cigarette-ceasing program is to enable young adults to live healthy lives as they achieve their educational objectives.
Today, cigarette smoking is among the leading causes of death among young adults in the United States. The Advanced Practicing Nurses (APNs) play an important role in executing smoking cessation interventions and educating adolescents on the adverse negative effects of cigarette smoking (National Institutes of Health, 2015). Therefore, incorporating NPs in smoking cessation interventions for young adults will see a significant reduction in cases of cigarette smoking among young people. This is to means, as NPS learns how to address challenges such as cigarette smoking, they will be able to come up with problem-solving initiatives for serious issues that concern public health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report (2008), smoking cessation approaches decrease risks associated with chronic illnesses such as stroke and cardiovascular diseases. With respect to the importance of these initiatives, creating an effective plan to collect the needed data is important. In the plan, collecting patient’s information will be divided into three steps, which will include the assessment stage, intervention stage, and lastly, the evaluation.
Addressing the smoking problem among young adults through the cessation approach will require NPs to utilize subjective and objective data for focused intervention. In the evaluation stage, NPS will screen their patients’ smoking habits. Therefore, nurses will measure the levels of nicotine using FTND. FTND will determine how long a smoker will smoke after waking up. In addition, it will ensure that patients are screened in the appropriate manner (National Institutes of Health, 2015). Subjective data such as Patient History (PH) and Family History (PH) on respiratory diseases and cancer among others, will facilitate an effective cessation intervention. In addition, NPS will assess patients’ ceasing history to create effective alternative approaches. Objective data is significant when creating a focused intervention (National Institutes of Health, 2015). NPS will carry out complete physical examination through physical assessments of blood pressure. In addition, nurses will examine the different body parts to note tobacco irritations.
It is important to carry out diagnostic tests to determine the appropriate treatment measure. For an effective Ceasing cigarette initiative, a spirometry test for all smokers should be carried out at the intervention stage. Upon establishing normal results, NPS will initiate smoking cessation strategies. Upon positive identification of a smoking problem, smokers will be advised to visit healthcare providers for advice and seek further assistance on smoking cessation interventions. Lastly, at the evaluation stage, patients under treatment will be screened to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. At the evaluation stage, smoking intervals will be assessed.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Healthy youth! Student health and academic achievement. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and productivity losses–United States, 2000-2004. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 57(45), 1226.
National Institutes of Health (2015). New Funding Opportunities from the Science of Behavior Change Program (2014). Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Common Fund Program Report. Web.