Smoking cessation training for healthcare workers
Healthcare workers have an important role to play in helping someone to quit smoking or vaping. Studies show that if the advice to quit smoking comes from a health professional, the chances of successfully quitting are increased.
Did you know?
Evidence shows that training leads to higher rates of smoking cessation.
Smoking cessation training keeps you up to date with the latest thinking and best practice. Explore our list of smoking cessation training programs for healthcare workers.
Statewide smoking cessation trainers
NSW Health offers state-wide face-to-face and webinar smoking and vaping related training for health workers across New South Wales.
Standardised training includes:
- Smoking cessation in pregnancy workshop
- Smoking cessation training for clinicians working with priority populations
- Managing nicotine dependence in an inpatient setting
- E-cigarettes and vaping devices
Quit Centre, managed by Cancer Council Victoria
The National Quit Training and Resource Centre for Nicotine Cessation, known as the Quit Centre, is a national best-practice support service for health professionals across Australia.
Quit Centre offers:
The Health Education and Training Institute
The Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) is a leading provider of high-quality training and education to support more than 110,000 clinical and non-clinical staff, trainers, managers and leaders across the NSW health system.
HETI provides several smoking cessation courses for healthcare workers in NSW through the My Health Learning platform. RACGP has a support guide for GPs.
Training courses available to NSW Health Staff include (use their search feature):
- Smoking & Vaping in Pregnancy Part A
- Smoking & Vaping in Pregnancy Part B
- Smoking cessation: a guide for all staff
- Smoking cessation: brief Intervention at Chairside (Oral Health)
- Facts about vaping
- Yarning about Quitting
Smoking and vaping cessation e-learning modules
The Cancer Institute NSW (the Institute) lead the development of smoking and vaping cessation e-learning modules for NSW Health. These modules are hosted on the HETI platform for all NSW Health staff to complete.
The Institute would like to acknowledge the time, expertise and input of every member of the focus groups for each of the modules, including subject matter experts, community organisations, LHD representatives, NSW Ministry of Health and the Pillars who contributed to the design, content and review of these modules.
A suite of 9 e-learning modules related to smoking and vaping cessation in specific health settings and/or priority populations including Aboriginal people and young people have been developed. Each of the modules has been developed to sit on its own without needing prior or assumed knowledge.
The only exception is the Prescribing for Smoking and Vaping Cessation module, which requires a basic understanding of the Ask, Advise, Help (AAH) model for brief intervention, understanding of the harms of smoking and vaping, and health benefits of quitting.
If you would like to view or host these modules/s, please contact the Prevention team at the Institute via cinsw-prevention@health.nsw.gov.au.
Reference lists for each of the modules is available at the bottom of the page.
HETI module references
This module is designed for clinicians including nurses, medical officers, and allied health professionals who work with people who smoke and/or vape.
Brief Advice on Smoking and Vaping Cessation Reference List file_download
This module is designed for clinicians including nurses, medical officers, peer workers, and allied health professionals who work with people with diagnosed mental illnesses and who smoke and/or vape.
This module is designed for health care clinicians, including nurses, medical officers, Aboriginal AOD workers and allied health professionals who work with people experiencing harms from AOD use or accessing AOD treatment who also smoke and/or vape.
This module is designed for clinicians including nurses, medical officers, and allied health professionals who work with people with cardiovascular disease who smoke and/or vape.
This module is designed for clinicians including nurses, medical officers, and allied health professionals who work with patients with respiratory disease who smoke and/or vape.
This module is designed for clinicians including Aboriginal health workers, nurses, medical officers, and allied health professionals who work with Aboriginal people who smoke and/or vape.
This module is designed for people who work with young people who use e-cigarettes (vape).
This module is designed for clinicians including nurses, medical officers, and allied health professionals who care for people with cancer who smoke and/or vape.
This module is designed for clinicians including medical professionals, pharmacists and nurse practitioners who prescribe and/or advise pharmacotherapy to treat nicotine dependence.
This module assumes you have a basic understanding of nicotine dependence, and the Ask, Advise and Help (AAH) model to assess individual need and provide cessation advice and support.
Call NSW Quitline for advice on helping your clients quit.