EXPANDING THE ROLE OF RESPIRATORY THERAPISTS IN TOBACCO CESSATION

This project aims to fill a recently‐identified gap in the tobacco cessation training of respiratory care students by equipping faculty from 442 respiratory care degree programs with the necessary knowledge and skills for teaching respiratory care students to assist patients with quitting smoking. Building upon a strong history of success in disseminating the Rx for Change: Clinician‐Assisted Tobacco Cessation training program, we propose to (a) work with members of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and others within the respiratory care community to adapt the Rx for Change curriculum to meet the educational needs of future respiratory therapists, (b) host a series of five live web‐based train‐the‐trainer programs for faculty, and (c) develop a parallel, enduring web‐based training program to meet the training needs of future faculty. The program will emphasize the Ask‐Advise‐Refer approach to cessation and will equip faculty and students with working knowledge of the seven FDA‐approved medications for cessation.  

A robust assessment plan will characterize: (a) the total number of faculty trained, (b) the number of respiratory care programs represented in the trainings, (c) changes in trainees’ confidence for teaching tobacco cessation content, (d) extent of Rx for Change implementation at 1‐year follow‐up, and (e) changes in the total number of minutes of tobacco content, through comparison with two baseline measures. The expected outcome is that faculty participants will have significantly increased confidence for providing tobacco cessation training and will integrate the Rx for Change tobacco content into their respiratory care curriculum.