JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Widespread vaping and e-cigarette use is a relatively new phenomenon. Youth vaping peaked in 2019 with 27.5% of high school students currently vaping[1–3]. E-cigarettes are used where smoking is not permitted or as an alternative smoking cessation treatment instead of FDA-approved options[4]. Vaping and e-cigarette use has the potential to harm health, including adverse respiratory effects[5–8] and nicotine addiction[9,10]. Healthcare professionals need skills training to help their patients regarding this relatively new and evolving health problem.

Objective:

Our objective was to understand healthcare professionals’ training needs in this subject area to determine the focus for online continuing education training.

Methods:

We reviewed the literature on clinical aspects of vaping/e-cigarette use. Using the results and our experience in substance use continuing education, we created a list of key clinical skills and surveyed healthcare professionals about their training needs. We also asked their interest in a list of related topics. We recruited individuals who completed our online courses on substance use, members of healthcare professional-related groups, and experts who published an article on the subject. Half of the 31 healthcare professionals who completed the survey were physicians, and the remainder were primarily nurses, social workers, and counselors. Participants self-identified as non-experts (n=25) and experts (n=6) on vaping.

Results:

Participants who were not experts on vaping on average agreed that they needed training in eight clinical skills (n=25; Avg. 4.1 agreement out of 5; SD=0.22; 87% agree/strongly agree). The top 2 skills were recommending treatments for patients and how to treat the health effects of vaping/e-cigarette use. Experts agreed on the importance of training for healthcare professionals in all skills (n=6; Avg. 4.7 out of 5; 98% agree/strongly agree), and on average rated the need for training higher than non-experts: 4.7 vs. 4.1 agreement out of 5; t(29)=6, P=.001. Nearly all (9 out of 10) vaping-related topics on a checklist received interest from over half of participating healthcare professionals (44% to 80%). The topics participants were most interested in were the pros/cons of vaping vs. smoking and the health effects of second- and third-hand vaping. Primary care physicians showed more interest in vaping-related topics than non-primary care physicians; t(13)= 2.17, P=.02.

Conclusions:

The study confirmed gaps in healthcare professionals’ vaping-related clinical skills identified in the literature by identifying a perceived need for training in a range of related skills. The study also found that healthcare professionals are interested in key topics related to vaping prevention and cessation. Experts more strongly believed there is a need for training than did healthcare professionals without expertise in this area. The study provides specific guidance on which clinical skills training is most needed and which topics are most interesting to healthcare professionals.