[Efficacy of nurses' on the job training to better advise cessation among hospitalized smokers].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The article describes the framework of an on-the-job training program for nurses that teaches them how to better advise hospitalized smokers to stop smoking. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the program. METHODS: We corducted an on-the-job training program for 4 years aimed at nurses who worked in 2 of 11 wards in our hospital (training wards). The aim of the training program that we developed was to improve nurses' self-efficacy in advising and supporting patients to stop smoking. An average of 40 nurses worked in the two wards at any time during the study period. A self-administered questionnaire was given to nurses working at our hospital before (in 1997) and after (in 2002) the program was undertaken. Changes in cognition and behavior with regard to advice to hospitalized smokers were also compared between nurses working at the training wards and nurses working in the other wards in question, whose number averaged 200 nurses during the period. RESULTS: There were no differences in age distribution, smoking habits and epidemiological knowledge of smoking between the two groups. Self-efficacy in advising and supporting patients to cease smoking was significantly increased among nurses working in the training wards (P=0.02), whereas no significant increase with time was found among nurses working in the other wards (P=0.14). After the program was undertaken, nurses working in the training wards had a significantly higher proportion who always advised hospital smokers to quit according to their predictable stage of change than their counter parts working in the other wards (adjusted odds ratio 2.93, 95% confidence interval 1.27-6.74). CONCLUSION: The study indicates the job training program to have improved the nurses' self-efficacy, appearing to change their behavior in advising and supporting patients to cease smoking.