Psychiatric nurses’ knowledge and practices towards patients’ tobacco-related habits in Mental Health Hospitals in Greece in the face of the upcoming psychiatric care reform

IntroductIon This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, practices and belief of psychiatric nurses and nurses’ assistants towards patients’ smoking habits and clinical practice. Methods A questionnaire-based study was conducted among psychiatric nurses and nurses’ assistants working in two major psychiatric hospitals in Athens from January to March 2015. The final sample consisted 297 psychiatric nurses and nurses’ assistants who were current smokers and agreed to complete the anonymous questionnaire. results The majority of nurses noted that the psychiatric patient (always 45.5%, sometimes 34.3%) should be excluded from the ban on smoking in hospitals. Various practices were noted among nurses concerning the assessment of patients’ smoking history smoking habits and cessation plans. Nurses had some knowledge about the health effects of smoking (96%) and feel responsible to help their patient quit smoking (37.4%). However they proved to be unaware of the relation between smoking, psychiatric symptoms and psychotropic medication. The findings indicated that almost half of psychiatric nurses smoke in their work environment and are against the application of the anti-smoking law in psychiatric hospitals (42.4%), as they believe that psychiatric patients should be handled different from other patients even though they are aware of the dangers of smoking (56.6%). conclusIons Our survey showed the existence of a number of misperceptions concerning psychiatric patients and a serious deficiency in knowledge on tobacco dependency and quitting. Mental health nurses should have a key-role in patient smoking cessation and should also act as role models for their patients. Future research should focus on the implementation of smoking cessation training programs focused on changing nurses’ attitudes and beliefs towards their patients’ addiction to tobacco.