A qualitative study to understand the barriers and facilitators in smoking cessation practices among oncology health care practitioners in one health system

Introduction: Despite the benefits of quitting smoking for those who have cancer, including improved health outcomes and reduced therapeutic toxicities, it is unclear how many people are supported in quit attempts during this time. Variations in the availability and provision of smoking cessation (SC) services are reported, with little understanding of the challenges and solutions. This co-designed study aimed to understand the perspectives of health care professionals (HCPs) working in oncology settings to engage in SC practices and identify recommendations for developing an SC pathway.

Methods: This was a qualitative study. Eighteen HCPs participated in semi-structured interviews from July 2021 to May 2022. We used thematic analysis approaches to code data and present four emergent themes and SC strategies at micro, meso and organizational levels.

Results: Four themes emerged specifically: 1) timing and knowledge, 2) building a relationship, 3) frequent asking with infrequent action, and 4) removing the barriers and tailoring the system. While HCPs discuss SC, there are variations in documentation and when conversations occur. Primarily, HCPs value the time to build therapeutic relationships with patients and thus may limit SC discussions in preference to treatment in clinical interactions. The role of structural barriers, including prescriptive authority for nurses, hinders active SC processes, as it is the lack of continuity and embedding of services supported by a clinical champion for SC.

Conclusions: The study suggests re-evaluating the status quo in SC service, highlighting service gaps and suggesting opportunities at organizational levels to reduce structural barriers.

Implications: Variations in smoking cessation services exist in designated cancer centres. The data from this study can be used to inform a real time health systems approach for SC services in oncology settings. Developing tailored smoking cessation services and interventions that are patient-centred and informed by their experiences are required. The data in this study suggests developing specialist education and training to upskill HCPs for equitable engagement if we are to meet EU and Moonshot goals for cancer reduction.