Tips for Talking Overview
Helpful Downloads
This section provides tips for talking to patients and clients to help healthcare professionals across the State of Colorado, including clinicians and pediatricians, nurses and nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, prenatal providers, dentists, substance abuse professionals, mental illness professionals, and anyone else who provides inpatient or outpatient healthcare.These tips are based on the Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative (CCGC) Guideline for Tobacco Cessation and Secondhand Smoke Exposure, which shows how you can integrate interventions for tobacco cessation and secondhand smoke exposure into every interaction with every patient using the 5A’s approach: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange.
Evidence shows people are more likely to quit when their healthcare provider tells them to. Even a 2-3-minute clinician intervention has been shown to be effective. If you have limited time, simply Ask your patients if they smoke and if smoking occurs in the home or car. Advise them to quit. If they are unwilling to stop, explain the health risks of secondhand smoke exposure and Advise them to smoke outside.
You can also Refer them to the Colorado QuitLine (1 800 QUIT-NOW) or www.coquitline.org
To learn more, see the Helpful Downloads box above.
