Preparing undergraduate nurses to provide smoking cessation advice and help.

Abstract

Nurses in New Zealand are expected to provide the Ministry of Health recommended ABC approach to smoking cessation interventions; but not all nurses receive adequate preparation. A national online survey was conducted to investigate the extent that smoking cessation education content is included in undergraduate nursing curricula in New Zealand's 17 Schools of Nursing. Fourteen schools responded. Of these 12 provide some form of smoking cessation education: five teach the recommended ABC approach and seven teach approaches not recommended by the Ministry of Health. Nine schools include education about nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). In seven schools smoking cessation education was found to be fragmented across the curriculum. In the majority of nursing programmes preparation of undergraduate nurses to provide smoking cessation advice and help is insufficient. It is recommended schools audit and update their curricula to include coordinated undergraduate smoking cessation education congruent with current national guidelines.