Running head: ADULT COMMUNITY NURSING: PUBLIC HEALTH IN ACTION 1

Adult Community Nursing: Public Health in Action

Name
Institute Affiliation
ADULT COMMUNITY NURSING: PUBLIC HEALTH IN ACTION 2

Adult Community Nursing: Public Health in Action

Executive Summary
The report examines the prevalence of smoking in the England, discusses the
role of nurse community practitioners in controlling its prevalence, and recommends a
health promotion framework for the nurses. Tobacco smoking is a critical public health
issue that demands an approach from the nurse community practitioner to control its
prevalence. In 2018, 14.7% of people above the age of 18 years smoked in the
Engalnd. This depicts around 7.8 individuals in the population and a 5% significant
decline since 2011. 16.5% of this population were men compared with 13% who were
women. People between the ages of 25 and 34 years represented the highest
percentage of current smokers. People in the routine and manual occupations had the
highest rate of smoking than people in professional and managerial occupations. The
role of nurse community practitioners entails dealing with rehabilitation as well as
returning the patient to a status of the maximum faction within limits posed by smoking
and prevent further decline in health. It is important for nurse community practitioners to
comprehend the nature of change, how the smokers respond to it, and how it impacts
change for improved public health. As such, the nurse community practitioners will need
a health promotion framework that includes passive and active smoking. Nurses can
prevent the prevalence of smoking by adopting effective health promotion frameworks
like Tannahill health promotion. Andrew Tannahill’s health promotion model entails
three overlapping components of health protection, prevention, and education in the
form of a Venn diagram. The dimension of health prevention entails explaining to the
population the risk of smoking with the assistance of medical knowledge. The dimension
of health education seeks to improve people’s knowledge by encouraging a behavioural
change. Finally, the dimension of health protection entails various activities applied to
ensure the wellbeing of the population.
Introduction
Smoking is the main reason for avoidable death in UK. Office for National
Statistics (2019) documents that nearly 78,000 deaths in the UK were connected to
smoking in 2018. Passive smoking, which is exposure to second-hand smoking, can
result in various illnesses, most of which are fatal with the young susceptible to the
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effect of passive smoking. In 2018, around 497,400 hospital admission were associated
with smoking in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2019). The only effective
approach to limit the hazard of smoking pathology is to help and encourage people in
smoking cessation. A reduction of the smoking prevalence is, therefore, the role of
nurse community practitioners in coordination with the devolved governments in the UK.
The report examines the prevalence of smoking in the UK, discusses the role of nurse
community practitioners in controlling its prevalence, and recommends a health
promotion framework for the nurses.
Smoking Trend in the UK
In 2018, the Smoking Toolkit Study provided the smoking trend in the UK with a
prevalence of 14.7%, which is around 7.8 million people (Office for National Statistics,
2019). The trend depicts a 5% significant decline since 2011 (Health and Social Care
Information Centre 2014). The UK appeared to have the lowest smoking prevalence
when compared to Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The prevalence of smoking
in 2018 was highest in the 25-34 age group (19.1%), according to the survey data
(Office for National Statistics 2019). While the largest fall in smoking trend was among
the 18-24 age group, those with 65 years and above had the lowest (7.9%). The
prevalence of smoking among women in the UK was 19% in 2018 and 23% in men
(Office for National Statistics 2019). Although the prevalence of smoking among women
was lower than men, they are predicted to increase in low and middle-income regions.
The estimates of smoking patterns in local areas tend to fluctuate annually because of
their small sample sizes that generate statistical inconsistency. Hull City is the area
among the ten local regions with the highest percentage of smokers since 2015, with
around 26.3% reported smoking in 2018 (Office for National Statistics, 2019). Although
Blackpool was among the area with the highest smoking prevalence between 2011 and
2017, it did not feature in 2018 with a smoking prevalence of 20.1% (Office for National
Statistics, 2019).
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Furthermore, the rates of smoking in the UK were 2.5 times higher in manual
and routine employees than the professional and managerial employees. In the context
of socio-economic status, around 24% of individuals working in manual and routine
such as bar staff, care workers, receptionists, and labourers were smokers in 2018
(Office for National Statistics 2019). This percentage appears to be higher than those
working in professional and managerial occupations (10.3%) such as teachers, nurses,
architects, and lawyers. There has been a significant reduction in the percentage of
current smokers among the socio-economic group since 2014.
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Role of Community Health Nurse

The prevention of smoking instigation, as well as the provision of smoking
cessation programs, are health promotion priorities of nurse community practitioners.
The role of nurse community practitioners is considered an expanded nursing role that
focuses on illness prevention, care provision, and health promotion for those with limited
access to health care (Cornacchione & Smith, 2012). The nurse community
practitioners reach a significant range of patients through the community outpatient
environment as primary care entails various population groups such as aging adults,
expectant mothers, adults, adolescents, children, and infants. According to
Cornacchione and Smith (2012), nurse community practitioners are well suited to
impact the health of their patients by promoting smoking prevention as they have
educational skills that focus on counselling skills, advanced clinical expertise, disease
prevention, and health promotion. Besides, nurse community practitioners have the
prescriptive authority that enables them to prescribe pharmacotherapy for patients to
help smoking cessation efforts. Nurse community practitioners have the expertise and
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knowledge in the provision of patient care in a health care setting that results in positive
patient outcomes with a high degree of compliance and satisfaction. Specifically, they
are competent in diagnosing, managing, and treating disease with similar outcome
measures as physicians. Therefore, the role of nurse community practitioners entails
dealing with rehabilitation as well as returning the patient to a status of the maximum
faction within limits posed by smoking and prevent further decline in health.
.
Health Promotion Model
It is important for nurse community practitioners to comprehend the nature of
change, how the smokers respond to it, and how it impacts change for improved public
health. As such, the nurse community practitioners will need a health promotion
framework that includes passive and active smoking. Nurses can use Andrew
Tannahill’s health promotion model that entails three overlapping components of health
protection, prevention, and education in the form of a Venn diagram (Tannahill, 2009).

The dimension of health prevention seeks to avoid any health issues before the
development of any abominable health effects, including primary, secondary, and
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tertiary levels. The dimension of health prevention entails explaining to the population
the risk of smoking with the assistance of medical knowledge (Tannahill, 2009). This
entails the use of campaigns to target the susceptible population and educating them
about the adverse effect of passive and active smoking. The dimension of health
education seeks to improve people’s knowledge by encouraging a behavioural change.
Specifically, this entails community programs that promote community health through a
collaboration of community authorities with health organisations in the provision of
learning, monitoring, evaluating, and planning health-related activities. An effective
health education consists of three learning domains of mental skills (level 6), affective
skills (level 5), and psychomotor (level 7). Finally, the dimension of health protection
entails various activities applied to ensure the wellbeing of the population. The main
strategy for smoking prevention includes implementing extensive awareness through
health promotion activities (Tannahill, 2009). Public education is a critical part of this
approach, as well as efforts to prevent the start of smoking.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The report highlighted the prevalence of smoking in the UK, discussed the role of
nurse community practitioners, and suggested a health promotion model for smoking.
Tobacco smoking is a critical public health issue that demands an approach from the
nurse community practitioner to control its prevalence. People between the ages of 25
and 34 years represented the highest percentage of current smokers. Nurse community
practitioners need to support smoking interventions as a critical aspect of health care
delivery and use Tannahill’s health promotion model in the implementation of effective
strategies to determine smokers and provide effective intervention. Tannahill’s health
promotion model entails three overlapping components of health protection, prevention,
and education in the form of a Venn diagram. Nurse community practitioners must
protect the population from tobacco smoke and warn the community about the effect of
smoking as well as help the smokers in cessation. It is unlikely that the United Kingdom
will attain tobacco-related health goals without an agreement that the smoking epidemic
ranks as a top health priority for public health.
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