Question

How do you address cultural sensitivity awareness about smoking, using ethics and emotional intelligence to help you negotiate with smokers across health care organizations? (Ideally this might be training or workshop on cultural sensitivity and ethics)

Answer 1

How do you address cultural sensitivity awareness about smoking, using ethics and emotional intelligence to help you negotiate with smokers across health care organizations?

Every individual in the world has an important role to control smoking. At the individual level, we can educate the population exposed to tobacco use and second-hand smoke. We can also help smokers to overcome this addiction. Currently, there are an estimated 1.3 billion smokers in the world. The death toll from smoking consumption is now 4.9 million people a year. Smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of death in the world. Some points to be noted:

• Not only are the poorer populations those who consume tobacco the most but tobacco, in turn, increases poverty.
• Through our professional activities, we can help people by giving advice, guidance and answers to questions related to tobacco use and its health effects.

Giving up smoking has some immediate and long-term health benefits:

• Blood pressure and pulse drop to a normal rate.
• The temperature of hands and feet increases to normal.
• Carbon monoxide level in the blood drops to normal.
• Oxygen level in the blood goes up to normal.
• Chance of heart attack starts going down.
• Nerve endings start growing again.
• Ability to smell and taste begins to improve.
• Lung function improves up to 30%.
• Coughing, sinus congestion, tiredness and shortness of breath decrease.
• Lung cancer death rate goes down by one half.
• Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas goes down.

We can use the 5A approach to quit smoking:

• ask about tobacco use
• advise all users to quit
• assess willingness to make a quit attempt
• assist the patient to quit
• arrange follow-up contact.

Important points related to cultural sensitivity:

Do not try to avoid smoking situations or opt-out of life. Go out and enjoy social occasions right from the start and do not envy smokers, pity them. Realise that they will be envying you because every single one of them will be wishing they could be like you, free from the whole filthy nightmare. No smoker wants to see their children start smoking which means they wish they hadn’t started themselves. Remember it’s not you who are being deprived but those poor smokers. They’re being deprived of their health, energy, money, peace of mind, confidence, courage, self-respect and freedom. If you’re offered a cigarette, just say: “No thanks – I don’t smoke”, rather than start a long conversation about how long it has been since you stopped.