A short report: survey of practice nurses' attitudes towards giving smoking cessation advice.

BACKGROUND Although practice nurses play an important role in implementing smoking cessation strategies in primary care, relatively little is known of their attitudes and beliefs about giving smoking cessation advice. OBJECTIVES To describe practice nurses' attitudes towards giving smoking cessation advice. METHODS 152 of 200 (76%) practice nurses randomly selected from Medical Research Council General Practice Research Framework records completed a postal survey. The Attitudes to Smoking Cessation Advice Questionnaire was used. RESULTS Overall, nurses were enthusiastic about giving smoking cessation advice and perceived such advice as effective. Nurses who were non-smokers perceived such advice as more effective than current smokers, as did those who had been trained in smoking cessation, who were also more enthusiastic than those who had not been trained. CONCLUSION Training all practice nurses in smoking cessation, and offering nurses who smoke effective smoking cessation services, is likely to help achieve Government targets for smoking cessation.