Improving smoking cessation data collection via a health visitor community of practice

A Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) funded study engaged health visitors in investigating the ways in which routinely collected data were captured, stored, transferred, analysed and then used to inform clinical practice. This report focuses on the establishment of a community of practice (CoP) to support these activities and then presents the outcome of the CoP's investigations into the collection and use of data on one key area of concern; maternal smoking behaviour. Evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice made by the CoP ranged from simple changes to the daily working practices of health visitors to ensure accurate data collection and dissemination of information, to major changes to processes and procedures relating to data quality and data sharing. The findings of the CoP emphasised the importance of cross-discipline communication and collaboration.