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

Abstract #118203

Linda Sarna, RN, DScN¹, Stella Aguinaga Bialous, RN, DrPH², Elizabeth M. Barbeau, ScD, MPH³, and Deborah L. McLellan, MHS³. (1) School of Nursing, University of California Los Angeles, Box 956918, Factor 4-262, Los Angeles, CA 90095-6918, (310) 825-8690, lsarna@sonnet.ucla.edu, (2) Consultant, 676 Funston Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118, (3) Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, SM 268, Boston, MA 02155

The over 2.3 million working Registered Nurses (RNs) are an underappreciated and underutilized resource in the fight against tobacco. Continued smoking among nurses, limited nursing leadership and advocacy, and lack of education/skills are barriers to involvement. This presentation will discuss the strategies used by the Robert Wood Johnson funded Tobacco Free Nurses Initiative (TFN), the first ever national effort to enhance nursing involvement in tobacco control, to develop tobacco leadership within nursing organizations. In partnership with UCSF Smoking Cessation Leadership Center and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, TFN organized a summit of 21 nursing organizations representatives, covering a variety of specialties, areas of practice as well as RNs and LPNs and unions, these organizations agreed to an action plan that would include any or all of three key activities: provide cessation for organization members; enhance cessation intervention with patients, work on policies such as tobacco free environments. This presentation will discuss the many outcomes of the implementation of this initial action plan and the second year activities of these organizations. We will also discuss the challenges and strategies used to work with nursing organizations and unions in the area of tobacco control.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the current status of nursing leadership in tobacco control.
• Discuss the challenges and strategies in working with nursing organizations around tobacco control.

Keywords: Tobacco Policy, 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.