Public Health Nursing Taking the Lead to Promote Tobacco-free Campuses

Background and Issues: As college, university, and healthcare campuses adopt 100% tobacco-free policies, public health nurses play a key role in advocacy, collaborative implementation planning, compliance assessment, and tobacco treatment initiatives. Tobacco-free campus policies change the culture of expectations about tobacco use, reduce outdoor tobacco smoke exposure, and promote successful tobacco cessation. Description: This presentation illustrates the key contributions of a team of public health nurses who provide leadership for an ongoing tobacco-free campus initiative at a large public university with an academic medical center. The goal of the campus-wide policy was to create a healthy place to live, work, and learn. A systematic 10-month implementation planning period engaged a total of 200 stakeholders from 35 campus sectors including faculty, staff, students, and neighbors. The policy was integrated into existing student code of conduct and employee corrective action procedures. Lessons Learned: A climate of compliance vs. heavy-handed enforcement was created over time. The university funded 12 weeks of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for employees, students, and sponsored dependents who participated in behavioral counseling. Campus tobacco users were five times more likely to use university resources to quit after the policy took effect. NRT sales in the medical center pharmacy doubled within a year after the policy was implemented. Recommendations: Innovative interventions can promote compliance and raise awareness of environmental impacts of cigarette butts on campus. Public health nurses provide critical leadership through all phases of tobacco-free campus policy development, implementation, and evaluation.