Quit smoking – team up and go for GOLD
By Smokefree Coordinator, Karyn Borman.
This November BOPDHB teams that refer
patients for quit smoking support through our
online referral form could win a team shout!
We want you to
refer patients for
quit smoking support.
This follows the successful July quit smoking referral campaign,
only this time it requires a team effort!
Go to the Smokefree
page on OnePlace
to download a
referral form
The competition works like this. We’ll be keeping track of how
many people are being referred from each team. To achieve
bronze status, the team will need to make 3 + referrals over the
month, silver = 6+ referrals and gold =10+. Teams that reach
gold status will go in the draw to win either pizza or a morning
tea. There will be a prize for both Tauranga and Whakatāne
sites. There will also be prizes for the top individual referrer in
both hospitals and spot prizes throughout the month, thanks to
our local quit smoking service, Hāpainga.
Keep an eye out on OnePlace and on noticeboards within
the hospitals for more information, including weekly progress
updates.
Spotlight on a top quit smoking referrer –
Dr Sam Illing, Whakatāne Hospital
What drives you to approach a patient
and/or their family to sign up to the quit
smoking referral service?
I know that children living in ‘smoking houses’ are more likely
to end up with bronchiolitis and asthma. There is also a high
financial impact on families who are often already struggling to
provide necessities to their whanau. I’m also aware that if a parent
smokes, their children are much more likely to become smokers
as teenagers.
How ‘user friendly’ is the online
referral form?
The referral form is very easy and quick to do. If I have the patient
folder for addresses and phone numbers, it takes me about 30
seconds to do the online referral.
Do you have any tips for colleagues in
terms of how to have that quit smoking
conversation and subsequent referral with
patients/families?
Did you know that people who have support have
a 1 in 4 chance of successfully quitting, whereas
they will only have a 1 in 14 chance with just NRT.
You can also help patients by including their family/whānau
who smoke on the referral form.
It’s really important to find out what resonates with and motivates
your patient, and use that to help them decide to quit. As I work in
paediatrics most of the time this involves talking with parents, and
usually they seem more motivated to help their child’s health than
their own. So by explaining the harm on their children, and how
much more likely they are to get sick they often find it much more
motivating.
From there I tell them that it’s not easy to quit smoking. If the
cigarette companies can have teams of people trying to make you
smoke, there is nothing wrong with you having a team to help you
quit. I explain that, with help, they are far more likely to quit. At
this point I talk about the [quit smoking service] Hāpainga. A lot of
patients don’t want to make a commitment to quit yet, in case they
Sam has referred many parents and caregivers visiting the Children’s Ward at
Whakatāne Hospital.
fail, so I’ll often tell them “just see them once, if you don’t like them
or it isn’t working for you, you can always tell them to get lost”, at
this point (having built rapport and made a couple of jokes) they
normally chuckle and will be happy to be referred.
For more information email [email protected] or contact
Karyn Borman on 8476 or Wendy Tustin-Payne on 8134.
Don’t forget to add their phone number. Also consider referring
parents/carers of children.
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