Publication:

Health professionals' personal behaviours hindering health promotion: a study of nurses who smoke

Aim: To explore the views of current and ex-smoker nurses on their role in sup-porting patients to stop smoking. Background: Long-term conditions are closely linked to harmful lifestyle behaviours, including smoking and overeating. Health professionals have an important role toplay in promoting healthier lifestyles. It has been described that nurses’ health beha-viours may be a barrier to their health promotion practice. There is a need to gainfurther understanding on why nurses’ health promotion activity is influenced bytheir own health behaviour. Design: A secondary analysis of qualitative data gathered in 2010 in the context ofa project that aimed to develop a smoking cessation intervention for nurses. Methods: Eleven transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with nurses (current and ex-smokers) working in one university hospital in Spain. Data wereanalysed using framework analysis. Findings: Nurses who smoked engaged in social justification in terms of socialnorms and work stress. Only nurses who had quit smoking were able to identify thenegative feelings it generated and the effect that it had on their past health promotion practice. This was expressed by ex-smokers as an internal conflict that prevented them from supporting patients with their own habit. Conclusion: Nurses who smoke may be inhibited as health promoters withoutbeing aware of it. Interventions that focus on helping these professionals dealwith the challenges associated with these encounters are necessary if health promotion practices are to be enhanced. Targeting this conflict might also work toimprove their lifestyle, which would expand the potential impact to professionals’ own health.