Pharmacists: Help Your Patients Quit Smoking

You can play a key role in fighting tobacco use, the number one cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. You see many of your patients regularly. They come to you with questions about their medicines and their overall health. Many of your patients may be tobacco users who want to quit.

The Tips From Former Smokers^® (Tips^®) campaign can be a conversation starter. The campaign offers resources for you as well as your patients. With CDC’s support, you can help more patients live smokefree lives.

I’m ready to help my smoking patients quit. How can I get started?

Congratulations on your dedication! Following are some resources to help you with this very important work:

• Fact sheet about Tips[PDF – 467K] Learn how pharmacists can get involved and support patients
• Handout for Your Patients — “Reasons to Quit Smoking”[PDF – 1M]
• Free continuing education training for up to 4.5 CPEs, entitled “Smoking Cessation for Pregnancy and Beyond: A Virtual Clinic”
• FAQs for Health Care Providers
• FAQs about how quitlines work and their effectiveness
• A printable, pocket-sized tobacco intervention card[PDF – 69K] that lists the steps for conducting a brief tobacco intervention with your patients
• Medscape Video, Conducting a Brief 2A Tobacco Intervention featuring Tim McAfee, MD, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. This video shares the steps that you can take to conduct brief interventions with your patients.
• Visit the Tips From Former Smokers Download Center for videos to show in your waiting room, radio ads, print ads, and other free resources.

How can I help my patients become smokefree?

• Download “Talk With Your Pharmacist” posters to inspire your patients to quit (in English or Spanish). Hang them near your pharmacy counters, where patients will see them every day.
• Download videos, print ads, radio ads, and other Tips campaign materials from the Tips Download Center for use in your store. All of these resources are free.
• Order free notepads (with the 1-800-QUIT-NOW quitline number and CDC logo) to use in your pharmacy (enter “notepad” in search bar on publication catalog web page).
• Suggest that your patients visit the I’m Ready to Quit! page on the Tips Web site. Link to it from your practice’s Web site.
• Explain how patients’ health conditions can be linked to smoking. Use the Tips campaign participants as examples.
• Let your patients know that they can get free quit help by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) or 1-855-DÉJELO-YA (1-855-335-3569) (for Spanish speakers).