Objective: To describe a pharmacist-operated program to help people stop smoking.
Setting: Community chain (mass-merchandise) pharmacy practice sites in Virginia.
Participants: Faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy (VCU) and 15 practicing pharmacists.
Practice description: Smoking cessation clinics within the pharmacy departments of seven Target stores.
Practice innovation: With input from the practicing pharmacists and using the most current strategies reported in the literature, faculty at VCU developed a training manual for smoking cessation counseling. This manual was used to facilitate a 4-hour training session and also served as a resource for pharmacists in the smoking cessation clinics. Pharmacists were taught about behavioral modifications, the Transtheoretical Model of Change as applied to smoking cessation, documentation, the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, smoking cessation therapies, patient counseling techniques, physical assessment skills, and how to develop an individualized action plan for smoking cessation. As pharmacists established smoking cessation clinics, issues such as workflow, continuous quality improvement, and marketing were addressed by the faculty members and practitioners.
Results: Using the process and tools described in this article, pharmacists successfully established and operated smoking cessation clinics.
Conclusion: The process and materials developed for this demonstration project can serve as templates for other pharmacy faculty members and community pharmacists who wish to offer smoking cessation clinics.