Do nonsmoking programs actually reduce the level of

smoking?

Cigarette smoking is strongly associated with heart and

respiratory disease. If interventions to stop smoking could

be employed in workplace settings, potentially thousands

more individuals could be reached with such programs.

To see if workplace nonsmoking intervention pro-

grams are effective, researchers analyzed the outcome

of a group of programs targeting individual smokers: 10

studies of group therapy, 7 studies of individual coun-

seling, 9 studies of self-help materials, and 5 studies of

nicotine replacement therapy. Workplace interventions

aimed at the workforce as a whole included 14 studies

of tobacco bans, 2 studies of social support, 4 studies

of environmental support, 5 studies of incentives, and 8

studies of comprehensive (multicomponent) programs.

Following the analysis, the authors concluded:

1. Interventions directed toward individual smokers

such as advice from health care professionals or the

use of pharmacological treatments increase the like-

lihood of individuals quitting smoking.

2. There is limited evidence that including competition

or incentives organized by an employer can increase

participation in programs.

3. There is consistent evidence that workplace tobacco

policies and bans can decrease cigarette consump-

tion during the working day by smokers and expo-

sure of nonsmoking employees to environmental to-

bacco smoke at work. Such bans, however, may not

decrease the overall prevalence of smoking or over-

all consumption of tobacco by smokers.

Suppose you are interested in reducing cigarette smok-

ing in a family you care for? Could you use these find-

ings to help plan a program for them?

Nursing Theory

One of the requirements of a profession (together with other

critical determinants, such as member-set standards, moni-

toring of practice quality, and participation in research) is

that the concentration of a discipline’s knowledge flows from

a base of established theory.

Nursing theorists offer helpful ways to view clients so that

nursing activities can best meet client needs—for example, by

seeing a pregnant woman not simply as a physical form but as

a dynamic force with important psychosocial needs, or by

viewing children as extensions or active members of a family

as well as independent beings. Only with this broad theoreti-

cal focus can nurses appreciate the significant effect on a fam-

ily of a child’s illness or of the introduction of a new member.

Another issue most nursing theorists address is how nurses

should be viewed or what the goals of nursing care should be.

Extensive changes in the scope of maternal and child health

nursing have occurred as health promotion, or keeping par-

ents and children well, has become a greater priority.

With health promotion as a major nursing goal, teaching,

counseling, supporting, and advocacy are also common roles

(Vonderheid et al., 2007). Nurses care for clients who are

more critically ill than ever before. Because care of women

during pregnancy and of children during their developing

years helps protect not only current health but also the health

of the next generation, maternal-child health nurses fill these

expanded roles to a unique and special degree.