Impact of a Counseling Consultation in the Workplace for Smoker Health Professionals

Smoking is still a major cause of premature death in France (75,000 deaths a year). Health professionals also seem to be affected by smoking, but few studies have been carried out on this population of smokers. While having a job can be protective, certain working conditions are at risk: night shifts, stress, physical strain, burnout... In 2010, 23% of nurses and 40% of nursing auxiliaries were smokers. More recently, a study of 10,000 health professionals in a French health establishment in 2022 revealed a rate of 32% among nursing auxiliaries.

Data on smoking among health professionals is still scarce. Yet they seem essential, given that smoking among healthcare professionals seems to be an obstacle to dealing with patients' consumption and contributes to the erroneous representations that persist in psychiatry more than elsewhere, such as: "smoking with a patient makes an alliance with them", "smoking is a way of reducing psychological tension", "patients have other problems to deal with", "it won't work because they've been smoking for years". Smoking in mental health facilities is high among both patients and professionals.

Investigators now know that smoking has an impact on mood disorders and sleep. It aggravates all somatic and psychological pathologies and predisposes people to more diabetes, chronic bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc. It also interacts with many drugs.

Smoking screening and cessation assistance have become an indicator of quality somatic care in mental health institutions.

Investigators hypothesise that a consultation in the workplace can help employees to change their smoking habits.

The aims of this study are to assess the effect of a workplace smoking clinic on smokers employed in a mental health institution, and to describe their smoking habits and profiles according to occupational category, with a view to implementing appropriate preventive and treatment measures.