The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Engaging health professionals in providing tobacco-use cessation assistance can have a significant impact on the rates of tobacco use. Even brief intervention by a health professional can significantly increase a person's likelihood of stopping the use of tobacco, and this likelihood increases if the cessation message is heard from a number of health care providers. Providing appropriate training to health professionals is necessary in order to promote and enhance their roles in the provision of tobacco-use cessation assistance and in tobacco control efforts in general. Panelists will discuss 3 different tobacco control and tobacco-use cessation training programs that have been developed for health professionals in Canada, and share lessons learned. Potential future directions for training will also be discussed.

Methods: Panelists will discuss 3 different training approaches for health professionals in tobacco control and tobacco-use cessation. Issues to be covered will include the specific needs of different health professionals, the effectiveness of various training modalities such as web-based training, workshops and hard-copy materials, and the need to tailor training to the various settings in which health professionals work.

Results: Health professionals have demonstrated willingness to engage in tobacco control activities and in the provision of tobacco-use cessation to their clients. 3 different training approaches have been developed to enable health professionals to increase their involvement in these areas. Lessons learned through program conceptualization, design, implementation and evaluation will be provided through an interactive panel discussion. Preliminary evaluation results will be available by May 2006.