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Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation attendees will be able to:
- Identify lessons from the past and present that can inform future directions for engagement by physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and other health professionals against tobacco use and promotion.
- Review and assess the contributions of physicians, medical students, and other health professionals to successful tobacco control strategies in the clinic, classroom, and community.
- List key challenges to mobilizing medical and public health schools, health professional societies, clinicians, and students as community or policy activists, and ways to address these challenges.
In addition to their clinical, teaching, and research roles, practicing physicians and other health professionals have been shown to play an important part as community leaders, agents of change, and strategists in curbing tobacco use and promotion. But with rare exceptions few medical schools include tobacco education in their curricula beyond a formulaic lecture or video, much less throughout students’ entire training. A similar paucity of tobacco education exists for student nurses, dentists, and pharmacists. Faculty and students at schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and public health (as well as practicing clinicians and individuals from health departments and organizations providing continuing education for health professionals) will benefit from this session.
Key Points:
For 25 years (1977-2002), a unique tobacco control group of over 5000 physicians and medical students, DOC (Doctors Ought to Care), catalyzed tobacco control policy at the local, state, and national levels, stimulating medical organizations to shift from public relations statements to public health actions. The innovative approaches of DOC and other models for tobacco control by health professionals (eg, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, American Academy of Pediatrics, Tobacco-Free Pharmacies, Nightingales) will be reviewed.
Educational Experience:
Group discussion will generate a list of incentives and obstacles to involvement by health professionals in tobacco control in clinical and community settings. Engaging resources and adaptable curricula will be provided.
Benefits:
This session will provide positive strategies for reviving the interest of health professionals and students in eliminating exposure to second-hand smoke, reducing tobacco-caused illness through smoking cessation and relapse prevention, networking, and developing tobacco control policy at the clinic, campus, and community levels.