[brian]

Tobacco-Free Nurses news conference – On May 3, ANA and the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) participated in a Nursing Research in Tobacco Cessation press conference in Chicago. This event, which included the release of a new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pocket guide, Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses, was designed to draw more attention to the Tobacco Free Nurses campaign, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The pocket guide gives nurses easy access to information based on the “Five A’s” approach to cessation intervention: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange. It also includes a current listing of smoking cessation medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a referral to the National Quitline, 1-800-QUITNOW.

The Tobacco Free Nurses Campaign is the first national program focused on helping nurses stop smoking. Other Tobacco Free Nurses campaign partners, in addition to ANA and ANF, include the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nursing Associations. For additional Web-based resources, visit www.tobaccofreenurses.org and get $100 worth of smoking-cessation services free, as well as resources geared specifically to nurses. For free copies of Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses, call 1-800-358-9295, or visit www.ahrq.gov/path/tobacco.htm.