Smoking Cessation Takes Nurse to China, Eastern Europe

“Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death around the world. While smoking prevalence has decreased to 42 million in the U.S., it’s increased in other countries.”

So says Linda Sarna, interim dean and Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Endowed chair, UCLA School of Nursing, whose efforts to increase nurse delivery of evidence based practices (EBPs) to help patients quit smoking and decrease tobacco use among nurses have taken her to many countries including China, Czech Republic and Poland.

Sarna, who became active in tobacco control early in her career as an oncology nurse, assessed the use of the first EBP guidelines, published in 1996, by nurses in Korea, Hong Kong, China and Japan. “I was especially interested in China because it has the largest population of smokers—350 million,” says Sarna who observes the adverse impact of smoking on the inability to help patients quit.

“Nurses, who are current smokers, are less likely to engage in intervention and more likely to have a negative attitude. Nurses feel guilt, shame and a reluctance to engage because they can’t address this very serious addiction. They aren’t any more or less immune to tobacco and the way it’s glamorized and associated with all the wonderful things in life,” she adds. Of the important role nurses play in the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and diabetes—Sarna says “The common risk factor to the four diseases was tobacco.” She points to the website, www.tobaccofreenurses.org, containing a monograph about nurses and NCDs she co-authored for the World Health Organization, that show nurses “can go beyond prevention, screening, early detection and treatment” to promote health