Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118202

Stella Aguinaga Bialous, RN, DrPH, Consultant, 676 Funston Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118, 415-876-2990, stella@bialous.com, Linda Sarna, RN, DScN, School of Nursing, University of California Los Angeles, Box 956918, Factor 4-262, Los Angeles, CA 90095-6918, and Mary Ellen Wewers, PhD, MPH, School of Nursing, The Ohio State University, 1585 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43210.

Studies have shown that the 2.3 million nurses working in the U.S. lacked information about resources related to tobacco control. Limited access to these resources as well as smoking prevalence among the profession (16% of Registered Nurses) was identified as barriers to nursing involvement in tobacco control. We will review the utilization of a web resources in disseminating tobacco control information to nurses. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Tobacco Free Nurses (TFN) initiative was launched to provide tobacco cessation information, support, and resources for nurses. Since its launch in February 2004, the TFN website (www.tobaccofreenurses.org) has had a average of 1,149 unique visitors/month, an average of 5,086 page views/month, and the number of monthly visitors has increased 200% since inception. The average time spent on the site is 15 minutes, and education material, such as brochures, is being accessed at increasing rates since available. TFN is one of the top sites on Google on “nurses and tobacco”, averaging 683 hits/day, although we will present how numbers vary according to availability o media. TFN has used a minimal paid media campaign of ads in professional nursing journals. TFN links with a 24/7 online cessation service for nurses, Nurses Quitnet, with an average of 374 (ranging from 251-618) views/month. These data indicate that over a brief period, the TFN website emerged as an important resource for nurses. The TFN website is a viable mechanism for communicating about tobacco control with the nursing community.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the Tobacco Free Nurses as a resource for nurses in tobacco control
• Identify key elements of the Tobacco Free Nurses
• Discuss the applicability of using the web to dissminate tobacco control resources to health care professionals

Keywords: Internet Tools, Nurses

Related Web page: www.tobaccofreenurses.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.