(ARA) – Everyone knows that smoking is bad for your health, but can lighting up also be bad for your career? Frequent smoke breaks can create rifts among employees, with non-smoking colleagues often feeling that they are shouldering more than their fair share of work while smokers are outside having a cigarette. Many employers also believe smokers are less productive, and considering that smokers are more likely to take sick time, there is certainly evidence to support their beliefs.
With that in mind, Everest Institute Nursing Instructor Sally Borrello, a specialist in smoking cessation, makes quitting the habit a vital component of her teaching in both classroom and clinical settings. Considering many of her nursing program students will go on to careers in the health care field, Borrello believes that it is important for her Everest students to be able to serve as role models and properly educate their patients about the benefits of quitting smoking.
Whether you’re motivated to quit for your health – or your paycheck – Borrello offers the following advice to smokers wanting to kick the habit.
The first step to quitting is to make a commitment, and then stick to it. “One of the first steps someone can take when they have made the decision to quit is to pick a ‘quit day’ and make preparations to quit,” says Borello.
The quit day should be within the next one to four weeks, because the further away the quit day, the more likely the smoker will change his or her mind.
Second, would-be quitters must begin to identify behavioral triggers that create the urge to smoke and take steps to separate their daily routines from their triggers. For example, if you smoke in your car, then the smell of smoke in the car could be the trigger. Cleaning the car and making it smell like a non-smoker’s car can help reduce the urge.
Similarly, Borello advises changing your daily habits to separate them from the act of smoking. If you start the day with a morning coffee and cigarette, she suggests smoking in a different part of your house than where you drink your morning coffee, so that your morning coffee can become part of your non-smoking life.
“All of this is in preparation for quit day. As I tell my Everest students, once smokers can separate themselves from the triggers and behaviors that encourage smoking, they see themselves being successful even before quit day,” she says.
Throughout the process, it’s important to have as much support as possible, including smoking support sessions and nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs). “Smoking cessation counseling, combined with nicotine replacement therapies, has been proven to be very effective in helping people quit,” she explains.
Borrello also emphasizes the importance of proper education about NRTs and their usage. She explains that there is a specific way to use each NRT, which is more than just chewing gum or sucking on a lozenge. “Using NRTs involves activating the nicotine and parking the gum in the cheek for the nicotine to be absorbed through the mouth’s membranes,” she says.
Moreover, she does not recommend quitting “cold turkey” if that implies just quitting without NRTs, or simply giving up cigarettes. However, she says that if an individual is using NRTs, then a total elimination of cigarettes after quit day is shown to be more effective than quitting gradually, because the remaining few cigarettes become harder to give up, making it even harder to fully quit.
Clearly, quitting is difficult. The withdrawal symptoms, both physiological and psychological, such as headaches and irritability, are common and can negatively affect both quitters and their families. However, the most important part of quitting is perseverance. “Set a quit day as soon as possible and never quit quitting. Relapses can happen, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to quitting,” advises Borrello.
These resources can be a great help to those interested in quitting smoking and for health providers interested in learning more:
* Check on your state’s “quit line” as many offer free counseling and free NRTs.
* Many online resources and websites can help quitters, including: www.becomeanex.org.
* The government website, www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/quittingsmoking.html, is an excellent resource on the health benefits of quitting smoking.
