Anthony Wilson had lots of reasons to quit smoking and vaping. He is athletic, and he found that nicotine severely impacted his stamina. “When I played basketball, it felt like my lungs were going to collapse,” he said. Anthony also knows people with heart disease who have scars from surgery and look far older than they really are. He didn’t want to be like them.
But his most important reason was his 10-year-old son. “I thought about the future me with my son, living a healthy, happy life,” he said.
Anthony has been nicotine-free for a year after taking part in the Vanderbilt Nicotine Treatment Program (NTP). NTP uses a combination of medication, a clinically designed handbook and virtual support groups to keep participants focused over an intensive six-week period. Follow-up sessions are offered for up to a year after that.
A Win/Win for Business and Employees
Helping employees quit nicotine is good for business. According to the National Institutes of Health, smokers were 33% more likely to miss work and were absent nearly 2.7 more days per year, compared with nonsmoking employees. And, on average, employers pay an additional $659 per year in health care costs for each employee who smokes.
Vanderbilt’s NTP makes sense for employees, too. Many employers offer the service as a free or low-cost benefit to employees. “It was a no-brainer to me; I signed up instantly,” said Anthony, a concrete driver at IMI in Nashville.
Another IMI driver, Edwin Roman, was smoking about two cartons of cigarettes per month, which cost him about $800. After completing the program, he is down to a pack a week now and has committed to going completely smoke-free by the end of March. Plus, he’s using less than half of his asthma medication.
Edwin’s energy has increased exponentially. “I couldn’t talk without coughing or running out of breath,” he said. Now he’s able to climb on his truck to clean it and walk to feed his horses without using his inhaler.
Managing Triggers for Nicotine
Both Anthony and Edwin had tried to quit before. They say the NTP’s support groups have made the difference, especially since they included coworkers. “I would see them every day; we coached each other,” Edwin said.
They also learned how to manage their triggers for nicotine, whether smoking, vaping or dipping. For Anthony, it was drinking. Today, he’s not only smoke-free, he’s also sober.
Boredom was Edwin’s trigger. He travels 90 minutes each way to work. To stay alert, he’d smoke a cigarette. David Workman, a nurse practitioner from Vanderbilt Health who introduced Edwin to the NTP, suggested talking to his wife and friends on the phone as he drove to combat fatigue. It worked.
Anthony also credits Workman for his success. “David really made this fun; he’s energetic and positive,” he said. And because Workman is a former smoker, he brought relevant experience.
Edwin said he’d recommend the Vanderbilt NTP to anyone. He’s even got his wife interested in enrolling, since she is eligible for the benefit, too.
“The key is the honesty of the people in the support groups,” he said. “It opened our eyes. I’m ecstatic, I really am.”
For more information on the Vanderbilt NTP, contact Employer Solutions at employersolutions@vumc.org or call (615) 421-0112.
