New nurses helping South Lanarkshire smokers to quit

SFCG University of the West of Scotland nurses Joanne McFarlane and Yvonne Keyes. NHS Lanarkshire is helping to train the next generation of nurses on how to help smokers give up while in hospital.

Stop smoking specialist nurses from the health board are providing tobacco training to general and mental health nurses at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) to give them insight into nicotine addiction, the health effects of tobacco use, the benefits of stopping, and knowledge of the treatments available to support patients who smoke.

Yvonne Keyes is a UWS student nurse who did her training at Udston Hospital in Hamilton.

She said: “The tobacco training and placement within the stop smoking service made us realise how much tobacco use impacts on people’s overall health.”

This was echoed by fellow student nurse Joanne McFarlane who added: “Even temporarily stopping smoking while in hospital can improve patient recovery and reduce the risk of complications.”