Abstract
Objective: At our clinic, public health nurses give short-time guidance on smoking cessation to all smokers that undergo Ningen Dock. In order to maintain the reproducibility of the guidance and raise its effectiveness, we used an original smoking cessation support tool (tool) devised by our clinic and examined its effectiveness.
Methods: From among people undergoing Ningen Dock at our clinic from July 1 to December 30 2014, we selected the 1,118 with a smoking habit and divided them into 2 groups: Tool Not Used Group (n = 566) and Tool Used Group (n = 552) in order to evaluate the effectiveness of guidance from a public health nurse with and without use of the tool. For the evaluation, change in the degree of interest of the person receiving guidance was classified as "no change/decreased" and "increased". Change in interest was examined by the χ2 test according to whether the tool had been used or not as well as by public health nurse giving guidance. The lengths of experience of the 4 public health nurses giving guidance were: public health nurse A 13 years, public health nurse B 10 years, public health nurse C 6 years and public health nurse D 4 years.
Results: There was no significant difference regarding change in degree of interest between whether the tool was used or not used. However, for public health nurse D, in the Tool Used Group, the increase in the percentage of subjects responding "increased" for interest was significantly greater.
Conclusion: There was no significant change in the effectiveness of guidance when the tool was used. However, the findings suggest the possibility of short-term guidance on smoking cessation being more effective when given by a public health nurse with less experience using the tool. We consider that the tool could be utilized in the training of new staff or those with less experience.
