Increasing Smoking Cessation Counseling in Patients with Substance Use Disorders

The United States reports more opioid-related deaths than any other country across the globe, with over 90,000 lives lost in the year 2020. Patients undergoing MAT have exponentially higher rates of tobacco and nicotine use compared to the public, in fact, five times greater than the national average. At large, these patients commonly forego smoking cessation (SC) counseling or SC products, nor do they adhere to SC programs. The use of multifaceted interventions appears to be the most effective means of SC counseling techniques within the MAT population. Combination interventions, such as the use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) with motivational interviewing or behavioral reduction methods, not only improved rates of quit attempts but also produced long-term abstinence. The introduction of multiple components of SC techniques early in a patient's substance use recovery offer a patient the greatest benefits and chance for successful smoking abstinence. This quality improvement project aims to educate clinicians upon the importance of a multifaceted intervention aimed to engage patients in SC counseling while increasing readiness to quit smoking. After implementation of the educational sessions, the occurrence of SC counseling increased by 3% within this clinical site. This project shows that even greater efforts are required to encourage MAT patients and their clinicians to commit to SC efforts

Increasing Smoking Cessation Counseling in Patients with Substance Use Disorders

The United States reports more opioid-related deaths than any other country across the globe, with over 90,000 lives lost in the year 2020. Patients undergoing MAT have exponentially higher rates of tobacco and nicotine use compared to the public, in fact, five times greater than the national average. At large, these patients commonly forego smoking cessation (SC) counseling or SC products, nor do they adhere to SC programs. The use of multifaceted interventions appears to be the most effective means of SC counseling techniques within the MAT population. Combination interventions, such as the use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) with motivational interviewing or behavioral reduction methods, not only improved rates of quit attempts but also produced long-term abstinence. The introduction of multiple components of SC techniques early in a patient's substance use recovery offer a patient the greatest benefits and chance for successful smoking abstinence. This quality improvement project aims to educate clinicians upon the importance of a multifaceted intervention aimed to engage patients in SC counseling while increasing readiness to quit smoking. After implementation of the educational sessions, the occurrence of SC counseling increased by 3% within this clinical site. This project shows that even greater efforts are required to encourage MAT patients and their clinicians to commit to SC efforts