The Laser Cure Smoking Cessation Program Goals

Many people have used the Laser Cure Smoking Cessation program with great results. Most patients are able to quit after one treatment with Low Intensity Laser Therapy. Experienced professionals use counseling and Low Intensity Laser Therapy to help people address their dependence on nicotine.

The Laser Cure provides the best-quality, evidence-based care for tobacco dependence — non-judgmentally and supportively. Our program is based on the Registered Nurses Association Nursing Best Practice Guidelines for Smoking Cessation. Whether someone is ready to quit or not, registered professionals work with patients to develop a plan that will give the best chance of success when they are ready.

A proven relationship exists amid the amount of intervention and intensity of treatment, and the success of an individual in quitting tobacco use. The Laser Cure offers programs that can help those who just need a little extra push, as well as those who have almost given up — and everyone in between.

The Laser Cure Smoking Cessation program is supervised by a Registered Nurse so that all aspects of the patient’s condition are considered in the treatment process. Treatment of nicotine dependence is coordinated with treatment of other medical problems, when necessary.

Guiding Principles/Assumptions about Smoking Cessation

The guiding principles and assumptions that underlie this nursing best practice guideline related to smoking cessation are as follows:

1. Regular tobacco use is an addiction that requires support and repeated interventions.
2. The offer of assistance to quit smoking will benefit every person who smokes.
3. The client has the right to accept or refuse smoking cessation intervention.
4. Individuals who smoke deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and sensitivity, while receiving smoking cessation intervention.
5. The public values and trusts specific advice provided by nurses in the practice of their profession.
6. Nurses are key members of the healthcare team and have a unique, credible and powerful position within the team.
7. Nurses are involved with clients at multiple entry points to care. This provides many opportunities to identify persons who smoke and implement smoking cessation interventions.
8. Actively implementing smoking cessation interventions in every care setting will increase successful quitting.
9. Nurses who currently smoke have a professional responsibility and can effectively provide smoking cessation intervention.
10. Nursing students have the right to education about evidence-based practice interventions and strategies for smoking cessation.
11. Nurses have the right to education to enable them to provide the best evidence-based standard of care.
12. Nurses are ideally positioned to provide a leadership role related to smoking cessation at the individual, program and/or policy level.

Facts on Tobacco Use

• Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death, disease and disability.
• Tobacco use increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancers, respiratory diseases, adverse effects in pregnancy, gastrointestinal problems and tooth and gum problems.
• In 2005, 16 percent of Ontario adults aged 18 years and older were current smokers of cigarettes (i.e., smoked daily or occasionally in the past month and smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime) which is lower than the current national rate of 20% (Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2006).
• More than 47,000 Canadians, aged 35 or older, are estimated to die annually as a direct result of smoking.
• Tobacco kills over 16,000 Ontario residents each year (Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, 2006).
• In 2002, the total economic cost of tobacco use in Ontario was almost $6.1 billion (Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2006).
• Smoking is responsible for about one-third of potential years of life lost due to cancer, about one-quarter of potential years of life lost due to diseases of the heart and about one-half of potential years of life lost due to respiratory disease.
• 80 percent of persons who smoke, who have been identified and advised to stop smoking, report that they want to stop smoking (Brodish, 1998).
• Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addictive. Smoking is both a psychological and a physical addiction. Nicotine is one of the most highly addictive substances known.
• Second-hand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke is a toxic mixture of chemicals produced during the burning and smoking of tobacco products.
• There are approximately 4,000 chemical compounds in second-hand smoke. More than 40 of them are known to cause cancer.
• The average additional annual cost to an employer of employing a person who smokes has been estimated by the Conference Board of Canada to be $3,396.00 (Conference Board of Canada, 2006).

Tobacco use increases the risk of:

Benefits of Quitting Smoking

Quitting smoking is the single most effective thing that a person who smokes can do to enhance the quality and length of their life. For some conditions, such as ischemic heart disease, the benefits of quitting smoking are substantial, both immediately and in the long term. The risks of dying from tobacco-related diseases are reduced over time, in comparison with those who continue to smoke (Health Canada, 2001). The
risk of smoking related disease continues to decrease as the duration of abstinence increases.

Understanding Tobacco Addiction

• Tobacco contains nicotine, which is a powerful and highly addictive substance. Smoking delivers nicotine to the brain very rapidly and effectively, bringing on the rapid onset and maintenance of addiction. The resulting physiological need for tobacco, as well as the accompanying psychological need, explains the continuing use of tobacco products in spite of all the known health risks.
• Nicotine dependence consists of both physical and behavioural components. Tobacco use triggers the release of dopamine – a chemical in the brain that is associated with feelings of pleasure (relief of withdrawal symptoms). Persons who smoke need greater and greater amounts of nicotine to achieve the same levels of satisfaction. Further smoking alleviates the withdrawal symptoms that set in as soon as the effects of nicotine wear off.
• Smoking cessation is not a single event but a process that involves a change in lifestyle, values, social circles, thinking and feeling patterns, and coping skills.
• Most researchers agree that individual users of tobacco differ to the degree to which they are dependent (Heatherton, Koslowski, Frecker & Fagerstrom, 1991).
• Historically, addiction to nicotine is one of the hardest substance use dependencies to break.Pharmacologic and behavioural characteristics that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine (Surgeon General of the United States, 2000).

Printed with permission from the RNAO 2008.

http://www.rnao.org/