A health clinic in Rogersville is trying a hands-on approach to get patients to stop smoking.
A patient can't walk into the Rogersville Health Centre without getting asked about smoking, no matter what the reason for going into the clinic.
Maxine Caissie, a nurse at the clinic, said she is willing to help anyone, anywhere.
"It's a small community, and this what we do. These are my family, my friends, anything to help my community get healthier, and another five minutes at the soccer field, help somebody out," said Caissie.
Caissie teams up with Dr. Basil Blanchard, who said he's been trying to get his patients to stop smoking for 20 years.
"For me it was a slam dunk, a no-brainer and I cannot think of a bigger and better intervention that is often so simple that you can make in the life of one person," Blanchard said.
Caissie and Blanchard knew that most of the work in convincing people to quit would be done outside the clinic by those who have succeeded.
"I think it has a big impact ... if you can get one guy who goes to Tim Hortons in the morning and all of a sudden he comes in and pulls out his inhaler and others say, 'What are you doing? What's that?' and so I think it was like almost a snowball effect," Cassie said. "A big role in our success."
Cassie and Blanchard began tracking patients' progress over six months using a computer program and the results have been phenomenal, they say.
Before they implemented the program they tracked 27 patients.
"Smoking cessation quit rate was around seven per cent. And after six months of doing this great project, it went up to 46.9 [per cent]," she said.
Cassie and Blanchard said they hope other doctors and nurses will try the program.
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