Nurses are key to fight the smoking habit
The key to helping China kick its smoking habit may lie in the hands of persistent nurses, says a two-part study by published online in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
In the study, an international team of investigators led by Linda Sarna, interim dean of the UCLA School of Nursing, and Stella Aguinaga Bialous, associate professor in the UC-San Francisco School of Nursing, found that nurses who do follow-up appointments make the most difference.
Part One
In the first study, researchers surveyed more than 2,000 nurses from 8 hospitals in Beijing and Hefei. They found while 64% of nurses asked patients whether they smoked and 85% advised patients who smoked to quit, only 17% of nurses arranged for follow-up. Yet, when asked whether they should be involved in tobacco control, nearly 90% of nurses said that believed they could play a critical role in tobacco control.
“With these results, we developed a web based educational smoking cessation program to give nurses across China the necessary tools to support a smoker’s efforts to quit,” Sarna said.
Part Two
The results of the first study allowed investigators to create the first long-distance, web-based learning education program in China focused on smoking cessation. Using a model based on previous studies conducted in the United States, a native Mandarin speaker recorded the webcast using a script that was reviewed and validated by Chinese collaborators. The content included the impact of health on smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke in China, data on prevalence of tobacco use, information on nicotine addiction and withdrawal, and evidence-based interventions that can be used by nurses to help patients quit.
All of the survey participants were sent an invitation with a link to the webcast, 1,400 of whom provided follow up data. Nurses were asked at three and six months whether there were changes in their practice. At three-months, 84% reported viewing the webcast.
Results from the second survey showed that six months after participating in the educational program, nurses reported they were more likely to assist with a quitting plan, and recommend a smoke-free home environment. There was also significant improvement in attitudes about tobacco control. The majority of nurses felt they should be non-smoking role models and that they should help patients quit smoking.
“In the long-term, we know that all healthcare professionals need to be educated about evidence based smoking cessation strategies,” Bialous added. “While most nursing schools include curriculum about the dangers of tobacco, few currently include cessation interventions in their content.”
The educational program is available online at the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care website and can be used to provide nurses in China with basic evidence-based knowledge and skills for smoking cessation interventions.
Category: Top Story, Wellness and Complementary Therapies
