Medical Student INtervention to Promote Effective Nicotine Dependence and Tobacco HEalthcare

Summary

Background: Smoking counselling during hospitalisation with post-discharge follow-up increases quitting. However, provision of cessation care for hospitalised patients is suboptimal. Students are potentially an untapped resource for providing cessation advice, but no studies have investigated this.

Aim: To determine if medical students can encourage motivation to stop smoking (MTSS; primary outcome) in hospitalised smokers .

Design: 2-arm RCT Setting: RCSI (www.rcsi.ie) and Connolly Hospital (www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/3/hospitals/Connolly/).

Participants: Inpatient smokers. Intervention and procedures: 60 graduate medical students will receive standardised motivational interviewing training in the provision of cessation advice. Each student will be randomly assigned to counsel \~1-3 smokers each, including an individual in-hospital, face-to-face session and post-discharge phone counselling. Training and implementation will cover Sept-2015-May-2016. Smokers will be randomised to 'usual care' (n\~90), or intervention (n\~90, student-delivered motivational interviewing). A researcher will enable recruitment and follow-up, and conduct a qualitative evaluation of programme participants.

Conditions

• Smoking

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Motivational interviewing

The medical student will deliver a brief (approximately 15 minute) consultation with the patient that is based on principles of social cognitive theory and motivational interviewing. The goals of this consultation will be to enhance the patient's motivation and self-efficacy regarding quitting, and collaboratively elicit a plan to stay quit after discharge. Patients will be offered the opportunity to receive a consultation from the attending physician to determine eligibility for pharmacotherapy (via a chart sticker). Each student will counsel 1-3 smokers each over the 8-month academic period, with student training and intervention staggered over this time. Students will also re-contact the smoker at 1-week post-discharge via telephone or personal follow-up, to provide further support.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Health Service Executive, Ireland

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Memphis

  collaborator OTHER

• Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown

  collaborator OTHER

• Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Seamus Sreenan · RCSI and Connolly Hospital

• Liam Cormican · RCSI and Connolly Hospital

• Ken Ward · University of Memphis

• Lisa Mellon, PhD · RCSI

• Ronan Conroy · RCSI

• Anne Hickey, PhD · RCSI

• Sinead Stynes · Connolly Hospital

• Frank Doyle, PhD · RCSI

• GEP IC1 · RCSI students

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-11-30

Primary Completion

2016-12-31

Completion

2016-12-31

Countries

• Ireland

Study Locations