Enough is enough

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General report on smoking and health (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1964) was the release of the 2014 Surgeon General report The Health Consequences of Smoking-50 Years of Progress (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). During a press conference announcing the report in January 2014, Acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, MD, MPH, repeated the refrain "Enough is enough" in frustration with the continuing burden of death and misery caused by tobacco use as he urged action to be taken. That challenge gives us an opportunity to ask ourselves whether, as nurses (particularly as oncology nurses), we have done enough to help patients who are still struggling with nicotine addiction.