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Award for Outstanding Live CME Activity

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The CS2day Partnership was awarded the Award for Outstanding Live CME Activity by the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions for its program entitles "Take 2 Minutes to Quit".

The Richmond Project, based in Richmond Virginia, is a part of the second generation of the CS2day (Cease Smoking 2day) initiative. This community based smoking cessation initiative included the CS2day partners, the Bon Secours Health System -Richmond and the International Speedway Corporation who owns the Richmond International Speedway, a popular NASCAR raceway. This project focused on creating a community based approach to smoking cessation using Motivational Interviewing as the primary communication approach to initiate this conversation.

The "Outside the Box" aspect of this project was two-fold. First, the CS2day partners believed that a community based approach to CME/CE would create a sustainable model for professional development and performance improvement that would extend well beyond the period of the initial project. Second, the opportunity for HCP to actively practice their Motivational Interviewing skills in a non-traditional environment provided a relatively low risk environment where these skills could be practiced and developed. Most of the attendees, approximately 50% live in the Richmond metropolitan region, were not current patients of the HCPs who were volunteering at the exhibit/learning laboratory.

The Outcomes from this project reflect the impact of a community based initiative. All of the partners brought resources, energy and commitment to the project that resulted in "in-kind" contributions, an awareness of the potential impact of the project on their work environments and an enthusiasm for trying a new idea. The project started with one learning laboratory in September of 2009 and was expanded to include a second learning laboratory session in April 2010. Bon Secours participants became champions for the project, communicated their experiences and fostered a grass roots interest in smoking cessation that has translated to Bon Secours creating a pilot smoking cessation support group and training for hospital security personnel who often are called to intervene when smoking rules are violated.

The International Speedway Corporation also reviewed the smoking incidence of their employees. Following our two sessions, the Richmond International Speedway grandstands are now non-smoking venues. There are new discussions about promoting smoking cessation with a statewide coalition of healthcare.

UC system banning smoking from all campuses

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18 January 2012

Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, January 13, 2012

The University of California is banning cigarettes and all other tobacco products from its campuses over the next two years, in a move designed to both protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and prevent young people from developing the bad habit.
Students and staff alike will be prohibited from smoking anywhere on a UC campus - including outdoor spaces, parking lots and private residences. There won't be any designated smoking areas.

The main impetus for the policy is to reduce people's exposure to secondhand smoke, UC officials said. But a major benefit, they hope, will be an overall reduction in smoking among those who work or study on the campuses.

"Our young students who come here as freshmen, who don't smoke but come to college and start experimenting, maybe they won't choose to smoke now. That would be a huge gain," said Trish Ratto, manager of UC Berkeley's Health Matters wellness program and a member of the committee that is developing the UC-wide smoking ban.
Smoking has been forbidden at the UC medical centers, including UCSF, since November, and at least seven state university or community college campuses outlaw smoking.

The policy change was revealed this week in a letter from the UC President Mark Yudof to campus leaders. Details such as the exact date that the policy will take effect and how it will be enforced are still not known. Ratto said she expects UC Berkeley and other campuses to beef up programs to help staff and students stop smoking.
"This is a very important milestone in California," said Colleen Stevens, chief of the tobacco control branch of the California Public Health Department. "In other states, most young people start smoking in their teens, but in California, that start date is getting older. This policy will help protect the next generation from suffering the horrible impacts of tobacco."

California has some of the most stringent antismoking laws in the country, and has among the lowest rates of smoking. About 12 percent of Californians smoke, compared with 19.6 percent of people nationwide, according to state and national public health reports.
Smoking rates are even lower in the UC system - about 10 percent of employees and about 8 percent of students smoke regularly, according to a UC Office of the President report. Another 11 percent of students report that they smoke occasionally, or less than once a month.
Student smokers should be a focus of the new smoke-free policy, public health experts said. Multiple studies have shown that the fewer places people are able to smoke, the more likely they will be to quit.

If young people can stop smoking, or never start smoking, before they reach their late 20s, they will be unlikely to ever develop the habit as older adults, said Dr. Stanton Glantz, director of UCSF's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
"Virtually nobody starts smoking after age 24 or 25," Glantz said. "If you can get people through the college ages and a little bit past, and they've either not started or they've stopped, then they're pretty well taken care of."

E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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