The effect of training staff in office-based smoking cessation counseling

A role for office staff members in smoking cessation counseling has recently been recognized and encouraged. We studied the impact of physician-staff team training in office-based smoking cessation counseling on staff members in 35 practices in Raleigh, North Carolina. Staff members who attended an educational meeting were compared with two groups: other staff members in their practices who did not attend the meeting and staff in other practices in which no one attended the meeting. Baseline attitudes toward and participation in smoking cessation activities were not significantly different among the three groups. Four months after the training, staff who had personally attended the meeting reported greater involvement in counseling activities than either of the two comparison groups. Attitudes toward involvement in counseling activities did not change significantly over the study period. Training staff members in office-based smoking cessation counseling may be a useful step toward increasing staff participation in these activities.