Despite decades of public health initiatives, tobacco use remains the leading known preventable cause of death in the United States. Clinicians have a proven, positive effect on patients’ ability to quit, and pharmacists are strategically positioned to assist patients with quitting. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy recognizes health promotion and disease prevention as a key educational outcome; as such, tobacco cessation education should be a required component of pharmacy curricula to ensure that all pharmacy graduates possess the requisite evidence-based knowledge and skills to intervene with patients who use tobacco. Faculty members teaching tobacco cessation-related content must be knowledgeable and proficient in providing comprehensive cessation counseling, and all preceptors and practicing pharmacists providing direct patient care should screen for tobacco use and provide at least minimal counseling as a routine component of care. Pharmacy organizations should establish policies and ...

Psychiatry training programs provide a unique arena for affecting professional norms and increasing access to tobacco cessation services among smokers with mental illness. Psychiatry Rx for Change emphasizes evidence-based patient-oriented tobacco treatments relevant for tobacco users with psychiatric disorders. Following Diffusion of Innovations theory and the RE-AIM framework, the curriculum is being disseminated to psychiatry residency and graduate psychiatric nursing programs in the Western United States with plans to study curriculum adoption, implementation, and maintenance on a broad scale. Psychiatry Rx for Change aims to increase the likelihood that smokers with co-occurring disorders will receive evidence-based cessation treatment.