Advice
Community nurses should advise the patient that stopping smoking is one of the most important steps that they can take to improve their respiratory and general health and that it is never too late to improve their respiratory function. Patients should be reassured that measures like NRT and expert support do work- in fact, people are four times more likely to give up smoking with this kind of support than on their own (Kanner et al, 1999). Also, it should be stressed that services can be provided near to where they live or by phone if they are housebound.