258060 Employee attitudes about moving toward a smoke-free campus at a Veterans Affairs hospital

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Sonia Duffy, PhD, RN , VA Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and University of Michigan, Nursing, Otolaryngology, Psychiatry, Ann Arbor, MI
Lee Ewing, MPH , VA Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI
Deborah Welsh, MS, BA , VA Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI
Petra Flanagan, PharmD , VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI
Andrea Waltje, RN, MS , School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Richard White, RN, MSN , VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI
Stacey Breedveld, RN, MSN , VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI
Eric Young, MD , VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI
     
Background: While Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals have been smoke-free inside of buildings since 1991, smoke-free campuses have rarely been initiated. The purpose of this study is to describe staff attitudes regarding making the VA hospital a smoke-free campus except for the mandated smoking shelters.

Methods: In 2008 a cross-sectional, anonymous survey was conducted with a convenience sample of employees at a Midwestern VA (N= 397).

Results: Descriptive statistics showed that the vast number of employees were in support of a smoke-free campus (76%), relocating the smoking shelters (62%), and offering employees assistance to quit smoking (71%). Multivariate analyses showed that those who were non-smokers, older, female, and higher educated were the greatest supporters of policies to support a smoke-free environment (p<0.05). Write-in comments were generally favorable, but also revealed employee resistance related to freedom, personal choice, and potential loss in productivity as smokers go further away from the building to smoke.

Conclusions: VA hospitals have unique challenges in implementing smoke-free campus policies. Enforcement of current policies, moving smoking shelters, and offering employees assistance to quit smoking are steps that will lead toward a smoke-free campus.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify barriers and facilitators to initiating smoke-free policies in the VA. 2. Identify issues unique to the VA that make it difficult to implement smoke-free campuses. 3. Identify policies that can enhance the implementation of smoke-free campuses in the VA.

Keywords: Tobacco, Veterans' Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: having a background in public health and health education, I have been the project manager on multiple federally funded grants focusing on translational interventions to change health behaviors, particularly related to smoking cessation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3204.0: Support for Smokefree Troops & Veterans