Determinants of Smoking Behavior among Nurses

Abstract

This article explores the determinants of smoking behavior among nurses and reviews the research documenting the history and current trends of cigarette use among nurses. National and international studies of cigarette use among nurses show them to smoke more than any other group of health professionals. Stress has been the primary theory of smoking causation among nurses. While some studies suggest this, there are also studies demonstrating no significant differences of stress among smoking and nonsmoking nurses. The literature offers other determinants, including socialization processes, the pharmacological action of nicotine, normative influences, the medical environment, and the feminist movement. A surprising late addition to this list is that nursing education itself may play a major role in the smoking behavior of student and graduate nurses. The failure of nursing education to emphasize health behaviors as well as the use of the medical model in nursing curriculum is suggested as an explanation for the findings that nurses are likely to perceive themselves more as the providers of care and help to the ill than as health models and educators. A summary of conclusions from studies of cigarette use among nurses is that student nurses should receive a specific learning experience which would focus on the role of health educator and exemplar in the nurse's role of preventing smoking-related illnesses. Conclusions from the literature also repeat the recommendation that educational strategies for nurses should contrast the use of cigarettes with the concept that nurses assume a role of health advocacy in promoting wellness.