Art & science health promotion
Attitudes to smoking and smoking
cessation among nurses
Chandrakumar S, Adams J (2015) Attitudes to smoking and smoking cessation among nurses.
Nursing Standard. 30, 9, 36-40. Date of submission: January 6 2015; Date of acceptance: June 21 2015.
Abstract
This article presents a literature review on smoking rates among
nurses and the nursing role in promoting smoking cessation
worldwide. Findings included wide variations between countries in
smoking rates among nurses, and the important influence of peers
and family members on smoking behaviours. Several studies indicated
that nurses would value more education on techniques to promote
smoking cessation.
Authors
Sreejith Chandrakumar Assistant practitioner, Clifford Medical
Assessment Unit, Kettering General Hospital, Kettering, England.
John Adams Honorary research associate, Faculty of Nursing and
Midwifery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Correspondence to: sre2255@gmail.com
Keywords
health promotion, literature review, smoking, smoking cessation
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THIS LITERATURE REVIEW on the smoking
habits and attitudes towards smoking cessation
among nursing students and nurses focuses
on the factors influencing the nurse’s role in
promoting smoking cessation among patients.
In several previous studies, it has been suggested
that nurses’ smoking habits affect their attitude
towards a smoking cessation role. In addition,
inadequate knowledge about smoking cessation
also affects their health promotion role in smoking
cessation (Wetta-Hall et al 2005, Biraghi and
Tortorano 2010).
36 october 28 :: vol 30 no 9 :: 2015
Humanity has a long history of tobacco use.
According to Field (2008), Nicotiana tabacum
was cultivated from 5000BC to 3000BC in the
Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes range. It was
chewed, sniffed, eaten, smoked, smeared over
the body, and used for enemas and eye drops.
The tobacco juice was also applied directly to the
skin to kill parasites. South American societies
used tobacco as an antiseptic and analgesic for
superficial wounds and toothache, for example.
In the 16th century, tobacco appeared in
England and the custom of smoking spread
rapidly. By World War II, smoking was common
throughout British society.
Smoking is now known to cause high levels
of preventable deaths. The World Health
Organization (WHO) (2015) estimates that
tobacco kills nearly six million people per annum,
including more than 600,000 non-smokers
who die from exposure to second-hand smoke.
WHO (2015) estimates that tobacco smoking will
kill more than eight million people annually by
2030, by which time approximately 80% of these
deaths will occur in low and middle-income
countries. Smoking leads to around 90% of deaths
from lung cancer, almost 80% of deaths from
emphysema and bronchitis, and almost 17%
of deaths as a result of heart disease (WHO 2014).
Promoting smoking cessation is important in
reducing the prevalence of smoking. Smoking
cessation helps to reduce the death rate as a result
of smoking-related diseases worldwide. Healthcare
professionals have a central role in promoting
smoking cessation. WHO (2014) estimates that
if all primary care providers routinely asked
about tobacco use and advised tobacco users to
quit, they have the potential to reach more than
80% of all tobacco users per year; prompt 40%
of smokers to make an attempt to quit; and help
2-3% of those receiving brief advice to quit
successfully. WHO (2014) advocates the use of the
5As model (ask, advise, assess, assist and arrange)
to provide a systematic framework for talking
to patients in the primary care setting. If the
patient does not believe that smoking cessation
will have major health benefits for them, the 5Rs
NURSING STANDARD