Basic Tobacco Intervention Skills Certification for Medical & Allied Professionals 

Ventura County Public Health Tobacco Education and Prevention Program offers free certification training for Basic Tobacco Intervention Skills. 

The five major steps to intervention are the “5 A’s”: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. 

• Ask – Identify and document tobacco use status for every patient at every visit. (You may wish to develop your own vital signs sticker, based on the sample below). 
• Advise – In a clear, strong, and personalized manner, urge every tobacco user to quit. Assess – Is the tobacco user willing to make a quit attempt at this time? 
• Assist – For the patient willing to make a quit attempt, use counseling and pharmacotherapy to help him or her quit. (See Counseling Patients To Quit and pharmacotherapy information in this packet). 
• Arrange – Schedule follow-up contact, in person or by telephone, preferably within the first week after the quit date. 

This accredited four-hour continuing education/certification course emphasizes evidence-based brief interventions for treating nicotine dependence. It provides learners with the basis for understanding commercial tobacco dependence as a chronic condition. Pathophysiology of nicotine addiction, pharmacotherapy, practical counseling skills, and case vignettes are included within the applied curricula. 

For more information, please call Yaderi Salazar Ortega at 805-981-6644 or email Yaderi.Salazar@Ventura.org.