Survey of student nurses' smoking habits in a London teaching hospital

As a preliminary to a 3-year intervention project to reduce smoking levels and prevent smoking commencement among student nurses, a survey of smoking habits among all 368 student nurses at The Royal Free Hospital was conducted in the Autumn of 1988. Absence rates of smokers and those who had never smoked were also studied. The response rate was high (95%) and the survey showed a high percentage (43%) of smokers among the student nurses. There was a higher proportion of smokers among those who did not respond to the first mailing of the questionnaire. The absence rate among smokers was almost twice that of the nonsmokers (P less than 0.005) and the number of days absent was related to the number of cigarettes smoked (P less than 0.05). Sixty-two per cent of nurses who smoked before they started their training (n = 125) said they had increased their smoking since commencing training and 39 (11%) nurses started smoking after starting nurse training. 'Stress', greater opportunity to smoke and peer influence were given as reasons for increased smoking and smoking commencement during nurse training.