Nurses should
play larger role in helping smokers quit
Newswise — Some good advice from
nurses to patients who smoke significantly increases the likelihood
of those smokers quitting, according to several articles in a
special issue of the July-August 2006 Nursing Research journal.
"These reports are evidence that
nurses are widely recognized as central to global efforts to reduce
the detrimental health effects of tobacco use," said Dr. Molly C.
Dougherty, Nursing Research editor and professor of nursing at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Nursing Research articles
contain tobacco cessation information including original research
evaluating methods for treating tobacco dependence. For example, one
study found that smokers who received tobacco cessation information
from their nurses were nearly 50 percent more likely to quit than
smokers with no nursing intervention. The report also notes that
nurses often care for underserved people, who are disproportionately
affected by tobacco use.
Summaries in the journal highlight
innovative methods for treating tobacco dependence and practical
approaches for clinical use, including recommendations from 42
researchers, clinicians, educators and representatives from the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Cancer
Institute.
"This information represents a
call to action for nurses, health care providers and policy-makers.
Health care professionals, and particularly nurses, have tremendous
access to patients and families affected by tobacco use. Nurses are
in the unique position to act as agents of change when it comes to
preventing and treating tobacco dependence," Dougherty said.
Nurses - the largest group of
health care professionals - can have an expanded impact on tobacco
cessation, the report says. To treat tobacco dependence, researchers
recommended widespread training of nurses to deliver interventions
to patients. They also recommended examining the prevalence of
smoking among health care providers themselves, citing research that
shows health care providers who smoke are less likely to intervene
on behalf of their patients who smoke.
Despite efforts to reduce smoking
in the last decade, there are still more than 45 million smokers in
the U.S., according to the editors of the report, Dr. Linda Sarna of
the University of California Los Angeles and Dr. Stella Aguinaga
Bialous with Tobacco Policy International. Smoking is the leading
cause of preventable death in the U.S., resulting in more than
400,000 deaths a year - one out of every five.
The special issue is sponsored by
the Tobacco Free Nurses Initiative through the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation.