Let’s clear the air on vaping

Health promotion and support with vaping for young people admitted to the children’s ward

Abstract

Objectives

Our aim was to support young people with vaping by empowering our paediatric team to explore vaping and smoking with them, provide information and signpost to further support.

Background

Vaping is widespread in young people and carries numerous physical and mental health risks, with unknown long-term effects.^1-3 There is a considerable environmental impact of disposable vapes. As per the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), paediatricians should discourage vaping and be proactive in preventing uptake.⁴

Methods

We audited all admissions of secondary school age to the children’s ward for documented vaping or smoking status in the electronic medical records for a series of months, before and after our interventions.

We met with the local drug and alcohol service for young people and organised teaching with them to inform our team about the risks of vaping, the impact in our community and support available. Educational information was distributed amongst the paediatric team and posters were designed and displayed throughout the children’s ward and emergency department, which included a QR code for an information leaflet and details for the drug and alcohol service. ‘Vaping or smoking status’ was added to our safe handover checklist.

Results

At baseline, month A, 14% of young people admitted to the children's ward had a documented vaping or smoking status (Table 1). This doubled in month B, the month following the teaching session and was sustained in month C, three months later. In month D, after a rotation of resident doctors, there was a decline in the proportion of young people with a documented vaping or smoking status, despite our change to the handover checklist, but still an improvement from baseline.

Our findings were inconsistent with national data on vaping amongst young people; only two young people in the study disclosed vaping¹. This may mean that more needs to be done to help young people to feel comfortable discussing their vaping and smoking status.

Conclusions

Our project generated an increase in the proportion of young people being asked about vaping, creating opportunities for individual health interventions. However, there is still a need
for further improvement in this area. We plan to continue the education with support from the drug and alcohol service, provide information packs for young people, and incorporate a
reminder in the electronic medical record.