Tobacco intervention training in graduate psychiatric nursing education programs

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death, with the highest rate of cigarette smoking seen in mentally ill people.

This study assessed the content, amount of time, and educational techniques used in tobacco education training for graduate psychiatric nurses.

A national mail survey of all graduate psychiatric nursing education programs.

One-third of programs offered detailed (>1 hr) information on stages of change, the 5 A's and 5 R's. The majority of basic science tobacco topics were not covered or were covered briefly, and the 6 sociopolitical topics were not covered by the majority of programs. Training was by the traditional didactic method using scientific literature reviews.

This study provides evidence of the need to improve the education of psychiatric nurses as tobacco interventionists at both the individual level and the legislative and policy formulation level. J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc, 2008; 14(2), 117-124. DOI: 10.1177/1078390307311973.