Tobacco Dependence Specialist

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£2.1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley. We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

Tobacco Dependence Specialists play a vital role in liaising and working with other healthcare professionals regarding the patient’s treatment plan and ongoing care. Specialists also perform the important role of providing training and support to frontline staff who deliver the admission care bundle, enabling them to issue NRT to patients and refer to TDT for specialist support. The post holder will deliver behavioural interventions to patients, such as developing self-regulation skills, withdrawal management techniques, effective use of tobacco dependence medication and enhancing confidence to pursue long-term abstinence. To achieve an effective therapeutic relationship to help treat the patient’s tobacco dependence, during their admission and post-discharge, high quality communication and rapport building skills are required.

Main duties of the job

• The focus of the role is to support delivery of routine Tobacco Dependence Treatment across the following pathway:

• A. NHS Inpatient Tobacco Dependence Treatment Delivery Model, comprising:

• Admission Care Bundle – Admitting team provides immediate brief advice and acute management of nicotine withdrawal.
• Inpatient Care Bundle – Tobacco Dependence Team (TDT) provides personalised support and development of treatment plan.
• Post-Discharge Care Bundle – Delivery of post‑discharge treatment and referral to specialist support by the Tobacco Dependence Team.

• B. Cessation of Smoking Treatment in the Emergency Department (CoSTED) Provision of nicotine vapes to patients attending ED.
• C. Stop B4 the Op initiative Delivery of routine tobacco dependence treatment prior to elective surgery.

Clinical responsibilities

• Deliver high quality specialist tobacco dependence assessment and treatment to patients across Denmark Hill and PRUH sites.
• Conduct assessments and formulate tobacco dependence care plans for patients, carers and clinical teams, evaluating outcomes and ensuring correct pharmacotherapies are administered.
• Review smoker’s level of withdrawal symptoms and ability to manage nicotine withdrawal, providing appropriate support.
• Provide specialist advice, consultation and support to clinical staff, health care providers and management teams within the organisation.
• Undertake training needs assessments and delivery programmes within and across all clinical services so that all clinical staff can provide first‑line support to tobacco dependent patients (admission care bundle).
• Support implementation of relevant initiatives e.g. Stop‑before the Op with elective surgical specialties and Cessation of Smoking Treatment in the Emergency Department (CoSTED).
• Manage and support the implementation of the NCSCT admission care bundle and BTS rapid inpatient NRT prescribing protocol across inpatient wards.
• Assist in‑patients who are ambivalent to long‑term abstinence from tobacco to manage withdrawal symptoms and urges to smoke, supporting temporary abstinence and a smokefree hospital admission.
• Provide effective support to patients who are committed to a goal of long‑term abstinence during their admission and following discharge from hospital.
• Liaise with and provide professional support to designated ward smokefree champions.
• Maintain support and continuity of care when patients are transferred to another ward/speciality.
• Deliver regular telephone support to patients after discharge from hospital.
• Provide specialist support and encouragement to non‑smoking patients who have low confidence in remaining smokefree.
• Provide tobacco dependence consultation and if applicable treatment to staff.
• Manage a caseload of patients independently and prioritise their needs.
• Contribute to the ongoing development, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of the tobacco dependence treatment team.
• Participate in national campaigns at King’s such as Stoptober, Lung Cancer Awareness and No Smoking Day.

People Management and Performance

• Line manage and develop Tobacco Dependence Advisors (band 5) across KCH sites.
• Liaise with both hospital care teams and external service providers to ensure that Tobacco Dependence Treatment is fully integrated into routine patient care pathways.
• Support the design and delivery of appropriate training to all levels of staff within the organisation to support the routine treatment of tobacco dependence.
• Competent in delivering training to support and develop Tobacco Dependence Advisors in the team and associated clinical staff.
• Develop and support innovative projects and initiatives to increase awareness of tobacco dependence treatment and the support available to patients and staff, particularly smokers with long term conditions.
• Liaise with voluntary and community organisations to develop and improve post discharge care for tobacco dependent patients and ensure that outcome data is fed back to the team.

Research and Service Development

• Utilise theory and evidence‑based literature to support work with tobacco dependent patients.
• Keep up to date with evidence‑based practice relating to the treatment of tobacco dependence, implementing good practice where required.
• Undertake appropriate research and disseminate findings to team and departmental colleagues where appropriate.
• Undertake clinical audits and service evaluations within the Tobacco Dependence Team to improve service provision.
• Work closely with the Trust and community communications departments to ensure that smoking cessation support services are widely publicised.
• Engage with different staff groups and departmental specialties to embed routine treatment for tobacco dependent patients as part of the clinical care pathway.
• Identify barriers that staff encounter making tobacco dependence referrals and supporting patients who smoke, making appropriate recommendations and implementing best practice.
• Devise health education resources or support materials for patients and staff where appropriate.
• Develop and deliver tobacco dependence training sessions to wards and specialist teams.

Person specification

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• Post graduate qualification or significant experience of working in a relevant discipline (addiction treatment, psychosocial support and changing health behaviours).
• Extensive knowledge of tobacco dependence treatment.
• Evidence of continuing professional development in utilising behaviour change techniques and supporting healthy lifestyles for patients.
• Knowledge of secondary care and how acute wards function.
• Experience of developing and delivering training for a range of health professionals and others.
• Experience of delivering tobacco dependence treatment to patients in an acute setting.
• Experience of providing telephone support/interventions.
• Experience of performance reporting and delivering targets.