Simulation Center Partners with Smoking Cessation Program

The Ochsner Clinical Simulation & Patient Safety Center partnered with the Ochsner Smoking Cessation Program and has started a series of simulations for smoking cessation. This innovative simulation was developed by Mike Smith, MD, medical director of Ochsner Simulation Center and professor at the UQ-Ochsner Clinical School.

The first training held on April 25 was with Xavier University of Louisiana physician assistant (PA) students. The Sim Center intends to expand the sessions to primary care residencies and to the medical school partnerships as well as nursing and respiratory therapists. Future plans include simulations for frontline physicians and caregivers.

Learners receive a didactic training, then an actual simulation is conducted where they interview a patient, assess their smoking status, assess their readiness to quit and offer support and guidance. Most importantly, a referral is made to Ochsner's Tobacco Cessation Program. The program is free and offers counseling and medication therapy for cessation. Louisiana law will soon require that smoking cessation programs be covered by insurance. Ochsner also offers a low-dose screening CT targeted to smokers to detect lung cancer earlier.

Compared to other states, Louisiana smoking rates are high, detection of lung cancer is later, and the mortality rate is higher. Referring more people to these programs will save lives, improve patients' quality of life and reduce medical costs associated with tobacco. Just a small decrease in smoking rates would reap large benefits.

Our institution’s namesake, Dr. Alton Ochsner, is credited as one of the first physicians to make the connection between lung cancer and smoking. Although his research was published in 1939, the U.S. Surgeon General's warning regarding the health dangers of smoking was not made until 1964.