Promoting a Smoke-Free Lifestyle to Kids

Introduction

The aim of this assessment is to show young children, not older than 13 years old, the benefits of not smoking. The assessment is like a presentation made to these children, indicating to them how it is beneficial not to smoke and the local, national and global strategies and policies that are put in place to discourage people from smoking. This health and wellbeing activity was necessary because through it, the audience could be made to understand why some people smoke and the effects that it has on their social, mental, physical and financial wellbeing. The activity also helped the target audience to know the benefits of not smoking, and how it improves the quality of life of those who quit smoking. The assessment highlights how the presentation session was planned, the tools used and the leadership skills and teambuilding theories underpinned the activity. Further, the assessment highlights the implementation of the activity and the health promotion theories and quality improvement strategies that underpinned my approach. The methods used to evaluate the health and wellbeing activity and quality improvement strategies are also discussed. In the last section, how this activity led to my professional development is highlighted.

The local and national strategies to discourage smoking in Scotland

The government of Scotland has come up with several to curb smoking. Some of the relevant ones that are aimed to establishing a tobacco free country by 2034 include, banning smoking near health facilities, illegalising smoking in confined or enclosed public, increasing the age required to purchase tobacco to 18 from 16 years and regulating electronic cigarettes sale, especially to young people (Healthier Scotland, 2008). Another measure that the government took was registering all retailers dealing in Nicotine and Tobacco Vapour products to ensure that these individuals sold the right licensed products in the country (Healthier Scotland, 2008). The other legislation is the 2017 Scotland Regulation of Nicotine and Tobacco products that limit the sale of these products to under eighteens (Scottish Government, 2021). The 2016 Scotland Health (Care, Nicotine and Tobacco) Act was also introduced, starting new regulations and laws on Nicotine and Tobacco vapour products sale. This law ensure that individuals above 18 years bought or sold these products with authorisation (Scottish Government, 2021). Other legislations include the 2013 Scotland’s Tobacco Sale Regulations that controlled the Prices and Display of Tobacco products in the country. Among other bills and legislations, the government also developed the Tobacco and Primary Medical Service Act 2020 that provides measures that target reducing the availability and attractiveness of tobacco products to people under the age of 18 years (Scottish Government, 2021).

Global strategies and policies

Internationally, there are global initiatives that have been made by the Center for Global Tobacco Control and the World health organisation (WHO), partnering with countries to reduce smoking at a global scale (Silva, 2003). The WHO came up with the Tobaco Free intiative, held in 2003 in Moscow Russia (Silva, 2003). During the meeting, policy recommendations, published the same year, were launched in Helsinki in Finland in the 12th Worlf Conference on Health or Tobacco (Silva, 2003). The policy recommendations from this meeting include a framework that governments can use to progressively reduce smoking by strengthening their capacities and resources. First, a public health framework which seeks to transform the prevailing social climate into a supportive atmosphere or environment that discourages smoking was encouraged (Silva, 2003). Additionally, health systems that focus on integrating and promoting best clinical practice, pharmacological and behavioural, which can help consumers to quit smoking successfully was recommended. Lastly, Information, research, and surveillance that encourage knowledge and information exchange to create awareness about the need to leave behind negative social norms were recommended (Silva, 2003). In collaboration with the WHO initiatives, partner nations have created measures to prevent youth from smoking and those who do not smoke from the effects of second-hand smoke, establishing safe environments that are free from smoke, and policies that increase public education on the adverse effects of smoking and regulating the tobacco industry (Silva, 2003)

Why this activity is relevant

This activity is important because it shows the health benefits of not smoking. With evidence, young people are made to understand how smoking affects the smoker’s wellbeing. Through the activity, various critical theories of planning and leadership are examined, also indicating my development process as a leader.

The evidence base behind my chosen topic

A cigarette contains tar that is a brown and sticky substance, which collects in a smoker’s lungs when breathed in. It stains teeth and fingers into brown or yellow colours. This substance also contains chemicals that cause cancer. It also increases the chance of developing other chronic or long lasting lung illnesses like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema (Cancer Research UK, 2021). Smoking more 20 cigarettes every day deposits this sticky, brown substance into the lungs of a smoker, so, imagine doing this every day of the year. This is the cause of lung cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, among other many smoking related diseases (Hopkinson, 2019).

Nicotine is also found in cigarettes, an addictive substance that increases dependence on smoking. While some people associated cigarette smoking with feeling less anxious and stressed, they do not understand that it only reduces nicotine addiction symptoms, a short time withdrawal signs that occur when one has not smoked (Denlinger-Apte et al., 2019). There are more than 70 chemicals that are in tobacco that cause cancer (Katz, 2017). Some of these chemicals include 1, 3-Butadiene that is also employed the manufacturing of rubber. Cigarettes may also contain arsenic, a very potent poison (Katz, 2017). Smoking affects the health of the smoker and that of those who are around (passive smokers), including children and babies (Mackenbach and colleagues, 2017). In children, getting exposed to cigarette smoke increases the risk of asthma, ear infection or Infant death, a condition known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, 2005). Evidence suggests that smoking increases the smoker’s heart rate and blood pressure (Xia et al., 2017). It also increases the formation of blood clot and depositing of fats in their arteries (Xia et al., 2017). All these problems have been associated with renal malfunction (Xia et al., 2017). WHO (2003) says that smoking one packet of cigarettes in a single day can cost an individual about 4.51 pounds, which in a year will be around 1646.15 pounds. It has also been found that smoking causes substantial financial stress on smokers and lowers their material wellbeing (WHO, 2003). By spending more money on cigarettes, smokers spend less on essential things like housing, clothing and food (WHO, 2003). Hernández and González (2020) say that smoking has been associated with isolation and social stigma, where some individuals have felt as if they are looked down on. Some people do not like being exposed to a cigarette smoke and are in fact intolerant of other people’s smoke. This has led to a social unacceptance of chronic smokers (Hernández and González, 2020). Cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive substance that increases one’s urge to continue smoking more often (Patricia Folan et al., 2017). Research by NIDA found that nicotine changes a smoker’s brain DNA structure and alters the expression of some genes, especially those in the brain that are linked to addiction (Zickler, 2004). This change in the smoker’s brain structure increases their response to hard drugs like cocaine (Zickler, 2004 Second-hand smoke comprises the smoke breathed out when an individual is smoking and the smoke released from the end of a burning cigarette (Iloh and Collins, 2017). This smoke has been found to harm children, cause sudden death in infants, cause lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Luk et al., 2018). États-Unis et al. (2010) claim that second-hand smoke has sudden adverse impacts on the smoker’s cardiovascular system and can lead to stroke and coronary heart disease (Institute of Medicine and Committee on Second-hand Smoke Exposure and Acute Coronary Events, 2010). To protect children from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020) suggest that pregnant women should avoid smoking. Parents with new born should not allow smoking around or in their homes where their babies are kept. One important thing about not smoking is that it helps to avoid or get rid of nicotine addiction. A non-smoker’s brain is not changed and hence are not exposed to the risk of becoming addicted to other drugs like cocaine (Warner and Mendez, 2019). Additionally, not smoking helps avoid exposing co-workers, friends, family and children to the equally dangerous and toxic second-hand smoke. These individuals are thus protected from developing the chronic diseases associated with second-hand smoke (Warner and Mendez, 2019). Baker et al. (2017) say that not smoking means having better, clean lungs, good health and better fitness. An individual is not exposed to the cancer causing substances and chemicals which might lead to other severe diseases (Baker et al., 2017).

Planning of the activity

How the session was planned

When planning for this presentation to 13-year old children, I first, came up with questions and issues related to smoking, and its effect on the health of both children and adults. I then developed a brief presentation that does not take too much time and seek where the presentation will take place. The target audience for the activity was determined and the possible barriers or challenges that would be met during the process were identified. Additionally, how the activities would be carried out, for instance, the duration, the location and possible success of the activities were also identified during planning. Further, I collected the relevant information and data related to the smoking health problem.

The planning tool used

I chose the PDSA cycle as a planning tool because it has been proven to be a vital systematic process for acquiring valuable knowledge and learning about a service, a process or a product (Picarillo, 2018). I found this tool vital in gaining important information about cigarette smoking and how it affects users. Also identified as the Deming cycle, this tool was started by Dr, Deming as an integrated tool for learning and improvement (Picarillo, 2018). The tool starts with the first step of planning that includes identifying the purpose and goals, as well as defining the success metrics of putting a certain plan in action. The planning step is then followed by the action or do step that includes implementing the developed plan, like carrying out an actual presentation about the benefits of not smoking in this topic. The next important step in this cycle is the study step where an evaluation of the outcomes of an action are monitored or assessed to test the success of the implemented activity (Picarillo, 2018). The last step is includes an act step where the learning produced by the whole activity or process is used to broaden a learning process (Picarillo, 2018).

Why this planning was necessary

As noted by Eldredge et al. (2016), planning is vital before carrying out important activities or programs because through it, the challenges or barriers that would emerge in preparing and doing the activities are identified (Eldredge et al., 2016). The people to be addressed during this presentation and the methods to be used in the process were also identified during the planning process. Through planning, it was also possible to create teams and how the program would move forward. Identifying the teams helped determine which data would be reviewed to successfully carry out the activity. Lastly in the planning process, the possible success and likely failures were also identified (Eldredge et al., 2016)

The leadership skills developed through the activity

One leadership skill that I developed from this activity is critical thinking. Preparing for the activity under the health issue of smoking led to different questions that needed critical thinking and problem solving abilities. For instance, I had to think about the age of my audience and how I would tune my presentation to match with their age and for them to understand the problem and solutions. As noted by Ramazani and Jergeas (2015), a good leader is one who can engage in critical thinking, foresee potential challenge and come up with ways to solve them or prevent them from occurring. Critical thinking also allowed me to find relevant information on the local and international strategies of dealing with smoking and find information on how smoking affects both children and adults. Another skills that I further developed, thanks to this activity is being a good communicator and listener. Good leaders have excellent communication skills to present effectively and successfully in front of an audience or a team (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015). Ramazani and Jergeas (2015) claim that some vital communication skills include good listening to understand what people need and passing information either through written or oral speech for the audience to understand. This activity sharpened my communication skills because I had to learn what young people need and how information could be passed to them in a manner that suits their age and level of understanding.

The teambuilding theory underpinned in the activity

In this activity, team building was done based on Tuckman’s theory of team development. According to Largent (2016), this team development approach follows four stages to reach synergy, from team formation to the storming stage where ideas on how to move forward are raised, to norming where the values and rules on how the team should be run are established, and finally to performing where the performance of different teams are assessed according to their level competence, knowledge, motivation and independence (Largent, 2016).

Implementation

The health promotion model and quality improvement strategies used

The health promotion model chosen for this work was Tannahill’s health promotion model. This model was promoted by Tannahill as a health framework that outlines three health promotion aspects including, prevention, avoiding or reducing the risk of developing a particular health problem, as well as ill health (Marotta and Mazzucco, 2017). Based on positive education on health, an individual or a team communicates to a target audience about how to improve their health and wellbeing and avoid ill-health by improving their attitudes and knowledge about the causes, and effect of a certain behaviour or disease on their health (Marotta and Mazzucco, 2017). The simple nature and ease of applicability make this model appropriate for this activity because through its stages, the target audience was positively educated on why people smoke, the negative effects of smoking on their physical, mental, social and financial wellbeing. The young individuals were asked to change their attitude towards cigarettes by giving them sufficient knowledge about the chemicals in a cigarette, how it changes the brain cells, leads to addiction and chronic illnesses and how beneficial it is to avoid smoking. The other model that could have been used is beatties model of health promotion, which is a sophisticated analytical model that seeks to embed health education in the wider cultural and social practices (Wills and Earle, 2007). This model allows us to examine the previous and current strategies that can be used in health promotion, as well as our role in the whole process. This method was, however, not chosen because of its complex nature, making it suitable for the activity meant for young children (Wills and Earle, 2007). The other model is the stages of change model, also known as the transtheoretical framework that looks at how an individual’s behaviour changes with time in six stages including precontemplation to the contemplation phase after which an individual prepares for the action stage and works to maintain the behaviour before finally thinking about terminating the maladaptive or unwanted behaviour (Manchaiah and colleagues, 2018). Even though this model is used in health promotion, it is more suitable when helping the actual people affected by a certain health issue like the actual smokers (Manchaiah and colleagues, 2018). This is the reason it was not chosen. Other models that were not chosen include the planned behaviour or reasoned action mode, the social cognitive theory, the health belief and ecological models due to their complexities and not being suitable for the target audience in this activity (Taylor et al., 2006).

The chosen learning theory

In this activity, the social learning theory was chosen as the most preferred for my intervention. This theory is also known as observational learning and focuses on people’s ability to learn through observations and being told or given information about an issue (Nicholson and Higgins, 2017), making this theory very appropriate because this activity involved showing children some pictures about the negative effects of smoking and being told how it affects the smoker’s health. According to Nicholson and Higgins (2017), this process relies on people’s attention process or ability to keenly listen and observe, their ability to retain the information, their motor reproduction abilities of doing or behaving as recommended, for instance, avoiding smoking, and reinforcing the required behaviour which is to totally avoid smoking (Nicholson and Higgins, 2017). Other learning theories like the classical conditioning where individuals are made to respond to stimulus or an incident with a desired behaviour (Khalid et al., 2020) is not as suitable as the social learning theory because it requires a lot of training yet this was a short activity that only involved teaching children not to smoke. Operant conditioning, which rewards or punishes a desired behaviour (Bąbel, 2020) was not applicable in this activity because it simply involved presenting the negatives of smoking to other people’s children in a short time, about a 2 hour program who also did not exhibit the unwanted behaviour of smoking. The cognitive theory of learning was also used in this activity because individuals were constructively and actively engaged in the learning process (McSparron and colleagues, 2019). According to McSparron and colleagues (2019), cognitive theory of learning involves using individuals’ interpretations, thoughts, ideas, and understanding of things around them in the learning process. This theory help engage the children and team in the learning process as they were asked, for instance, to try and remember instances when they saw, for instance, someone smoking a cigarette or a tar jar.

The teaching and learning methods considered for this activity

This activity involved the use of the telling teaching method, including lecturing the children about the negative effects of smoking, storytelling about some instances where individuals’ wellbeing has been affected by smoking and conducting group discussions to brainstorm about the issue of smoking and possible solutions (Kalyani and Rajasekaran, 2018). Visual methods like poster and picture demonstrations were also used to show, for instance, how smoking affects a person’s appearance. The audience was also engaged in some mental learning where they were asked to analyse the negative effects of smoking on the brain, on organs like kidneys and how these problems could be overcome or avoided (Kalyani and Rajasekaran, 2018).

Evaluation

Evaluating the success of this health promotion activity was done by examining different desired factors including, increased knowledge concerning the negative impact of direct and second-hand smoke and changes in the attitudes of my listeners, the young children, towards more healthy behaviours like not smoking, assessing the level of new acquired skills like relaxation techniques and exercising methods. One evaluation method used is outcome measures where questionnaires are given to the audience to assess their attitude with regard to smoking and the audience’s behaviour with regard to healthy living. According to The CDC (2015) outcome measures method can help determine if an event produced a desired goal or was effective. Outcome measures can be done after a specified period of time like after three or six months (The CDC, 2015).

Professional Development

This activity has contributed immensely to improving my professional development needs. Besides understanding the key health problems associated with smoking and the policy regulations that have been established locally and internationally, the opportunity to interact with other professionals and make a presentation to a live audience has enhanced by interpersonal skills. I have become a good communicator, I understand how to apply learning and team management theories in real situations. I am a good listener who knows how to use learning and teaching methods and theories to communicate relevant information to my audience, something that leaders should be able to do. The activity gave me the chance to use my graduate knowledge and skills in real situations. My knowledge of health, learning and teaching came in handy in this activity. In future, I would like to work in a diverse team, with professionals from different racial and cultural backgrounds to further understand the importance of diversity in a team and how to be sensitive to people’s difference and opinions. My goal is to further develop my leadership abilities to be able to manage and lead larger teams using conflict resolutions, negotiation and team building abilities to successfully complete projects. Additionally, I wish to continue interacting with, working with and learning from professionals to learn how to behave professionally in the workplace. As a team member, I believe that my performance during this activity was above average even though I wished to perform excellently. Working with different individuals in this team was both new and quite stressful. I hope to correct on these challenging areas by further learning about time management and teamwork. From this activity, some of the key professional competencies that emerged included leadership, excellent communication, good decision-making abilities and responsibility to complete assigned tasks correctly and in time. Considering my graduate needs, completing my undergraduate in the health will equip me with more knowledge and skills necessary for conducting public health promotion more effectively. My undergraduate training will prepare me for more advanced training in post graduate studies, for instance, learning about different research methods that can be used in health to contribute to the research of health promotion. My goal is to complete my undergraduate and take a master’s degree and possibly a post doctorate degree in future to gain a wider understanding in the area of public health and to get more employment opportunities and work with high level professionals to promote a healthy nation and a healthy world.

References

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Denlinger-Apte, R.L., Cassidy, R.N., Colby, S.M., Sokolovsky, A.W. and Tidey, J.W., 2019. Effects of cigarette nicotine content and menthol preference on perceived health risks, subjective ratings, and carbon monoxide exposure among adolescent smokers. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 21(Supplement_1), pp.S56-S62.

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