Nursing students’ beliefs about smoking, their own smoking behaviors, and use of professional tobacco treatment intervention

As the largest group of health care professionals, nurses are in a unique position to influence their patients who smoke. They also have more contact with patients than any other provider. The purpose of this survey study was to describe nursing students’ beliefs about cigarette smoking, their smoking behaviors, and use of evidence-based tobacco treatment intervention. Of 200 surveyed, undergraduate nursing students, only 6% were smokers. The most inaccurate perception about tobacco treatment was that counseling of less than 3 minutes did not have an effect on improving smoking quit rate. Eight percent of surveyed smokers reported providing tobacco use treatment to all patients who smoke compared with 26% of non-smokers. Smoking-related morbidity and mortality warrant consistent use of clinical practice guidelines by nursing students and professional nurses.