Impact of specialist and primary care stop smoking support on socio‐economic inequalities in cessation in the United Kingdom:a systematic review and national equity initial review

AIM: To assess the impact of UK specialist and primary care-based stop smoking support on socioeconomic inequalities in cessation.METHODS: Systematic review and narrative synthesis, with a national equity analysis of stop smoking services (SSS). Ten bibliographic databases were searched for studies of any design, published since 2012, which evaluated specialist or primary care-based stop smoking support by socioeconomic status (SES) or within a disadvantaged group. Studies could report on any cessation-related outcome. National Statistics were combined to estimate population-level SSS reach and impact among all smokers by SES. Overall, we included 27 published studies and three collated, national SSS reports for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland (equivalent data for Wales were unavailable).RESULTS: Primary care providers and SSS in the UK were particularly effective at engaging and supporting disadvantaged smokers. Low SES groups were more likely to have their smoking status assessed, to receive general practitioner brief cessation advice/SSS referral, and to attempt a quit with SSS support. Although disadvantaged SSS clients were less successful in quitting, increased service reach offset these lower quit rates, resulting in higher service impact among smokers from low SES groups. Interventions that offer tailored and targeted support have the potential to improve quit outcomes among disadvantaged smokers.CONCLUSIONS: Equity-oriented stop smoking support can compensate for lower quit rates among disadvantaged smokers through the use of equity-based performance targets, provision of targeted services and the development of tailored interventions.</p

Service user involvement in nurse education: perceptions of mental health nursing students

• Professional education and policy strategies increasingly stress the need for service users to be involved in the education of all nursing students, including students undertaking mental health field programmes. • In this study, a sample of recently graduated mental health nursing students, are asked to describe their perceptions of increased service user involvement in mental health nursing programmes. • The findings of the study demonstrated that recently graduated students were supportive of service user involvement. Study participants recognize the value of this involvement, the need to protect users who may be vulnerable and the clear benefits to both personal and service development, which will result from increased user engagement. Increasingly providers of mental health nurse education are required to demonstrate user involvement in all aspects of these programmes including student selection, programme design and student assessment. There has been limited analysis of how nursing students perceive user involvement in nurse education programmes. The aim of this study has been to explore mental health nursing student's perceptions of involving users in all aspects of pre-registration mental health nursing programme. Researchers completed a number of focus group interviews with 12 ex-mental health nursing students who had been recruited by purposeful sampling. Each focus group interview was recorded and analysed using a series of data reduction, data display and verification methods. The study confirms many of the findings reported in earlier user participation in education studies. Three main themes related to user involvement have been identified: the protection of users, enhanced student learning and the added value benefits associated with user involvement.</p