In-hospital smoking cessation programs: what do VA patients and staff want and need?

In preparation for delivering an inpatient smoking cessation intervention, surveys and interviews of general inpatients and staff were conducted in two Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals to determine the motivation of veterans to quit smoking and to identify facilitators and barriers to inpatient staff delivery of inpatient cessation services. Seventy percent of inpatients were "motivated smokers" (thinking of quitting in the next 30 days), yet only 17% stated that they received cessation services during their hospitalization. Most staff said that VA should do more to assist patients to quit, yet less than half said that they personally provided cessation services due to lack of confidence/training and hesitancy to upset patients. Given the high motivation to quit among hospitalized veterans and the lack of knowledge about providing cessation services among nurses, training health professionals may facilitate and overcome barriers to the provision of these services. As frontline providers, nurses are ideally positioned to deliver inpatient smoking cessation services to hospitalized veterans.