The Institute of Medicine (IOM) was established in 1970 as part of the National Academy of Sciences. The task of IOM is to “..ask and answer the nation’s most pressing questions about health and health care.” Information is provided from the IOM to policy makers and other influential people who can make changes to improve health care. (“Institute of Medicine”, 2009)
Comments to this posting are from students in NURS 257. Their assignment is to summarize a report from the IOM as it relates to Nursing and how nurse leaders may utilize this information. Enjoy!
Institute of Medicine. (2009, November 19). The National Academies. Retrieved November 19, 2009, from http://www.iom.edu/.
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Health care providers, including nurses, are aware of the health hazards of smoking but have historically not been pro-active in counseling patients to quit. This sentence from my paper sums up a sad commentary about smoking cessation. I chose to write on the IOM report Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation. (May, 2007). I found a few interesting and surprising facts in the report. For me, one of the most surprising facts was that the main deterrent to smoking, especially for adolescents, was money. The more expensive cigarettes become, the more decline in smoking is noted. The decline has nothing to do with health benefits but gets down to the costs. To that end, the IOM report recommends a substantial increase in cigarette excise taxes and significantly increased regulation of sales, to the point of having state run cigarette shops similar to the way liquor is sold in some states.
ReplyDeleteHow can we as nurses change this situation? We can step forward and always address the smoking issue with our patients. We can take the lead in educating them about smoking cessation programs and medications available to help. Currently, the nicotine replacement therapies are the most commonly used methods to aid smokers to quit but there are other medications available to help break the addictive cycle of nicotine. For about 25 years, researchers have been working on a nicotine vaccine which shows promise, especially in prevention of relapse.
This report was interesting and I recommend a review of the report brief, since the report itself was about 600+ pages. The IOM website included 4 briefs on this report, including one entitled “The Role of the Health Care Industry in Reducing Tobacco Use.” The recommendations in the briefs were kind of surprising, mostly focusing on increased regulation and taxation for smoking. However, the report also addressed areas of individual actions. Nurses can play a critical role in leading the nation to reduce or eliminate the use of tobacco products through education and intervention with every patient, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.