A qualitative assessment of provider perspectives on smoking cessation counselling.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2014
Identifier
doi: 10.1111/jep.12124; PMCID: PMC4441728
Abstract
RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Few studies have examined doctors' views about counselling unmotivated smokers. This study explored doctors' perceptions of useful strategies to motivate patients to quit, how receptive they felt patients were to these strategies, and the benefits and drawbacks of discussing smoking cessation with patients.
METHODS: Fourteen semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with doctors and resident doctors.
RESULTS: Strategies reported by providers included: educating about the health risks of smoking, using 'scare tactics' to highlight the harmful effects and providing advice about how to quit. Providers believed that most patients were receptive to their strategies, but noted that they lacked feedback to know for sure. Providers saw the possibility of improving patients' health and decreasing overall health care costs as potential benefits, but cited the potential to damage rapport, competing priorities during already rushed visits and uncertainty about the effectiveness of their efforts as drawbacks that reduced their motivation to raise the issue with patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Doctors believe in the potential benefits of smoking cessation counselling but predominantly report focusing on enhancing patient's risk perceptions. They did not report attempting to use the wider array of recommended and empirically supported methods to counsel their patients. Providing doctors with increased training in motivational counselling and feedback about the efficacy their efforts or supplementing doctor care with behaviour change specialists would likely increase the benefits of counselling to patients.
Journal Title
Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Volume
20
Issue
3
First Page
281
Last Page
287
MeSH Keywords
Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; Counseling; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Physician-Patient Relations; Qualitative Research; Smoking Cessation
Keywords
Smoking cessation counseling, Patient-provider communication, Physician perspectives
Recommended Citation
Champassak, S. L., Goggin, K., Finocchario-Kessler, S., Farris, M., Ehtesham, M., Schoor, R., Catley, D. A qualitative assessment of provider perspectives on smoking cessation counselling. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice 20, 281-287 (2014).
Comments
Grant support