Introduction
Tobacco use is a chronic, relapsing habit that has been proven to have adverse health effects. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (2018) show that smoking harms almost every single organ in the human body, causes various diseases and conditions, and worsens smokers’ health in general. In the US, cigarettes are one of the leading preventable causes of death, taking as many as 480,000 lives every year. Statistically speaking, smoking kills more people than human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), motor vehicle accidents, firearm-related incidents, and alcohol and drug abuse combined (The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, 2018).
The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (2018) estimate that smoking increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease by four times and having a stroke by two to four times. Aside from that, tobacco use is associated with an increased risk of having lung cancer (25 times higher for both men and women). The science behind this difficulty is crystal clear: nicotine in tobacco is highly addictive and causes withdrawal symptoms. It is suggested that an interdisciplinary team can help struggling smokers achieve their goals.
Collaboration Techniques
No matter how experienced a specialist is, he or she can only do so much single-handedly. Team collaboration in the healthcare sector is important because it provides support for every single team member and encourages expertise exchange and fresh perspectives on challenging issues. Strengthening interactivity and communication between teams and individuals can be achieved by introducing the SBAR approach, which stands for Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation. SBAR proposes a logical system and step-by-step guides that allow health professionals to handle situations in a standardized manner (Kostoff et al., 2016).
SBAR ensures that necessary information is transferred promptly, and referrals from a specialist to a specialist are made. Another technique is role delegation: it is not uncommon that healthcare professionals have little knowledge of each other’s responsibilities. Since their duties overlap a lot, it would only be wise to try and assign specific roles, which would propel the productivity of a team.
Health Promotion Plan Presentation
The health promotion plan will be proposed to the facility in the form of a presentation, using medical evidence and scientific findings. Presenting the plan to the community requires a language more appropriate for general audiences as well as an appeal to people’s emotions. The key idea behind the plan is the interdisciplinary approach praised for providing new avenues for service implementation and facilitating the patient referral system (Pannick et al., 2015). The present health promotion plan will require the joint effort of the following professionals:
- physicians gather key health information, conduct general counseling regarding a smoking problem, and refer to smokers to other specialists;
- nurses involve the family and encourage them to provide support during smoking cessation;
- cardiologists or pulmonologists handle the situation if a patient shows serious heart or lung disease symptoms;
- therapists help with individual and group counseling by identifying smoking triggers and proposing behavioral strategies.
Summary
For the reasons mentioned above, healthcare workers generally advise patients to quit smoking to increase longevity and improve their overall health. Smoking cessation is often quite challenging, with patients having multiple relapses before finally getting rid of this harmful habit. Smoking cessation interventions might need an interdisciplinary approach and techniques such as SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation) and role delegation. The smoking issue might require a joint effort of physicians, nurses, cardiologists, pulmonologists, and therapists.
References
The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. (2018). Health effects of cigarette smoking. Web.
Kostoff, M., Burkhardt, C., Winter, A., & Shrader, S. (2016). An interprofessional simulation using the SBAR communication tool. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 80(9).
Pannick, S., Davis, R., Ashrafian, H., Byrne, B. E., Beveridge, I., Athanasiou, T.,… & Sevdalis, N. (2015). Effects of interdisciplinary team care interventions on general medical wards: A systematic review. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(8), 1288-1298.