SMOKING CESSATION COUNSELING PRACTICES OF COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS – A THEORY-BASED APPROACH

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between Smoking Cessation Counseling Self-Efficacy, Knowledge of Smoking Cessation Counseling, Motivation to Counsel Smokers, Barriers to Performing Smoking Cessation Counseling, relative to the Smoking Cessation Counseling Stage of Change, and Intervention Practice Behaviors of healthcare providers in college/university health settings. The secondary purpose was to use the study variables from both the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM) and Social Cognitive Theory to show explanatory relationships between them.

This study used a correlational survey design. The College Healthcare Provider Smoking Cessation Counseling Survey, was a seven part instrument that included pertinent demographics, intervention practices and five subscales addressing the above variables. The final sample was 296 healthcare providers who were members of the American College Health Association national membership list who were listed in three sections, Nursing, Nurse Directed and Clinical Medicine.

Significant relationships were found between smoking cessation counseling stage of change and all of the predictor variables including knowledge of smoking cessation counseling, motivation to perform smoking cessation counseling and barriers to perform smoking cessation counseling, providing support for the Explanatory Model that was based on Social Cognitive Theory and the Stage of Change construct derived from the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change. The majority of healthcare providers reported having knowledge of smoking cessation counseling and the confidence to perform smoking cessation counseling behaviors based on the 5 A's of Smoking Cessation Counseling, and they were motivated to perform the behavior, however, respondents strongly indicated that there were barriers to performance. A lack of training in various aspects of smoking cessation counseling both in their professional medical and nursing education and in previous and current continuing education was also reported.

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