In this assignment underage smoking will be discussed in detail and National and local health priorities will be identified in relation to children’s nursing. Provision of current programmes will be noted and their effectiveness explored together with an analysis of the promotion strategy of health education. The difficulties and barriers that may be encountered will also be discussed as well as the role of the children’s nurse.
Finally ethical issues that may affect nursing practice will be considered. Included in appendix 1 are presentation slides related to this public health issue Smoking is the biggest single threat to the current and future health of young people often leading to fatal diseases. The vast majority of smokers actually begin when they are adolescent. It is thought that 150 million children globally use tobacco and this number is increasing, especially amongst young women.
(World Health Organisation, WHO 2010) In the long term it can result in heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease and many types of cancer including cancer of the lung, lip and larynx. (Rarkou & McGuire, 2007) . The children’s nurse will be more directly involved in the short term health issues that smoking may lead to. The child is more likely to develop respiratory problems, such as asthma-related symptoms which include: breathlessness, a tight chest, wheezing and coughing, will result in increased health implications.
(Muller 2007) Routine smoking can harm the growth of the lungs in children and young people, if this is not addressed, this could lead to the adolescent having to take a considerable amount of time away from school as a result. According to the Office for National statistics (2006) 11-15 year olds are smoking more regularly -equivalent to more than quarter of a million and among the ages of 16-19 year olds, it equates to three quarters of a million for this age group. At this point it is worth noting the effects of passive smoking on young people.
It is estimated that second-hand smoking causes thousands of deaths each year and children are more affected because of their undeveloped bodies. Second -hand smoking contains 4000 toxic chemicals and non-smokers have the same risk of developing diseases such as heart and lung cancer, as a people who smoke. The government have put in place many strategies, programmes and plans to help young people to stop smoking. Firstly there is a programme called; The Children and young people’s plan.
The aim of the service is for every local authority to identify and address local needs, for example in Westminster this would be: Childhood obesity, Immunisation, Sexual Health and Smoking. The local authorities are accountable to the government and a meeting is held every year to make sure that the needs of young people are being met and addressed. MyAction, is a programme that was set up to help individuals and families to stop smoking, lose weight and eat more healthily.