Smoking behaviour and attitudes among German nursing students

Abstract

Tobacco consumption is a major public health threat. Healthcare workers can contribute to the reduction of tobacco use. The principles of intervention need to be provided already during vocational school.This research examines the smoking habits, the personal attitudes towards smoking and the professional beliefs of healthcare trainees. The aim of this study is to ascertain the necessity and the general conditions for multilevel interventions of prevention and health promotion.In 2010, a questionnaire survey was conducted in a Berlin vocational school for healthcare workers.Of 148 students (RR = 49.3%) 41.9% of the students are daily or occasional smokers. The nicotine dependency and the number of cigarettes per day are comparatively low. The majority of smoking students is willing to quit and has already undertaken several attempts. Non-smoking protection is evaluated to be very important and intervention rates in patient care range between 49% and 72%. In both questions, non-smokers and smokers differ significantly.The self-reported smoking prevalence in our population is considerably lower than in previous studies. However, the smoking rate among healthcare trainees is still higher than in the general population.The students' own smoking behaviours and its influences on the treatment of patients should be reflected during school. It is necessary to develop adequate recruitment strategies and attractive interventions for this target group.