Irish healthcare staff-smoking, training and activity in treatment of tobacco dependence -an online survey

INTRODUCTION Ireland has strong tobacco control legislation but must get smokers to stop if the national plan of having a smoking prevalence of 5% by the year 2025 is possible. Involving all healthcare staff in this effort is regarded as important. We surveyed the present situation. METHODS An online survey was conducted of 1257 healthcare staff; 520 nurses, 440 doctors, 297 dentists in 2014. The sample was accessed with the help of the Irish Nurses and Midwifes Organisation (INMO), Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Irish Dental Association (IDA). The questionnaire addressed individual smoking habits and attitudes, training and practice with regard to smoking cessation. RESULTS The prevalence in our sample was 8.5%. Nurses had the highest prevalence. Doctors had the highest never smoked rate. Smoking was related to age. Attitudes to treating smoking were positive among all HCP groups. Overall 96.4% of HCPs agreed that they should routinely ask patients about smoking and 94% agreed that they should advise all smokers to quit. 20.7 % of HCPs said they had formal training in smoking cessation and this was correlated to asking or giving advice. 42.9% with training while only 7.6% without training felt well prepared to assist smokers quit (p <001). Time, work priorities and lack of training were identified as the main barriers by all HCPs. Doctors particularly reported time problems (χ2 = 158.021, p <001). CONCLUSION Prevalence of smoking is low in HCPs, formal training in SC is low but the need for HCPs to be involved in SC is widely accepted.