Integrating Smoking Cessation into Primary Care Services
Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish and maintain. Helping participants develop a new community that reinforces all their efforts to live a healthier life provides crucial support to their continued success – in quitting and improving their health. The National Nursing Centers Consortium (NNCC) is offering the ‘Stay Quit, Get Fit’ program, funded by the Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform, at no cost to select primary care centers in Philadelphia to improve the health of existing members and new participants from the community.
What NNCC provides to the partner site and ‘Stay Quit, Get Fit’ participants is:
• Initial workshop for all providers and primary care staff introducing the program and reviewing clinical care guidelines for cessation, discussing referral methods and electronic health record documentation.
• Group cessation and group exercise twice a week for a 7 week cycle. Licensed therapists provide the group cessation class which (in addition to a tobacco cessation focus) includes nutrition, stress reduction and relaxation skills. The fitness specialist provides the exercise portion of the group tailored to participant’s individual abilities and goals.
• Two follow up “reunions” (at 1 and 3 months after course completion) including health measures, surveys, nicotine replacement therapy refills, further quit support and celebrations of successes gained.
• The program manager is also always available to participants and staff for continued support between and after class.
For more information on Stay Quit Get Fit click on the following link: http://www.nncc.us/programs/stayquit.html
