Congress Abstracts 2003

79

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR: ONCOLOGY NURSES INCREASING THE COMMUNITY’S AWARENESS ABOUT LUNG CANCER. Barbara Biedrzycki, RN, MSN, AOCN^®, CRNP, Gina Szymanski, MS, RN, and Sallie Brovitz-Palmer, RN, BSN, OCN^®, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD; Sue Markus, RN, BSN, OCN^®, Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, MD; and Dawn Stefanik, RN, BSN, OCN^®, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD.

Oncology nurses know all too well the health challenges smokers face. In our practice settings we see smokers only after the cigarettes have taken their toll. Our chapter wanted to explore what impact we would have on our community and potential patients’ lives before the lung cancer diagnosis is made. What a refreshing opportunity our chapter had when we talked with mall shoppers about the hazards of smoking. Armed with lots of graphic educational materials (brochures, magnets, posters) and smoking substitute samples (gum, hard candy, lollipops, balloons), a dozen oncology nurses and two respiratory therapists shared vital information with shoppers and demonstrated the biological detrimental effects smoking has on their lungs. A diverse group of shoppers stopped at elderly smokers, illegal underage smokers, people who lost a loved one to smoking, former smokers, and the curious. Most were interested in what we had to say, but all were interested in telling us their life experiences with smoking. Not only did the shoppers learn about the hazards of smoking, but we learned a lot too. We discovered that we could not convince some people to say they were going to quit even though they verbalized an understanding of the health consequences of smoking. Understanding the different “stages of change” allows the oncology nurse to not consider it a professional defeat when, after a long discussion, the person indicates that they are going to continue smoking just as they always have. For our next community project, the oncology nurses’ educational strategies will have a theoretical basis in Prochaska’s transtheoretical model and stages of change. After identifying the person’s readiness to change, the discussion will be geared toward information that will be most helpful to the person. Through this poster we will share project strategies that made the community event a success. We would like to share our energizing experiences about how young and old people alike were so very impressed that the “cancer nurses” gave up their weekend time for this project...to talk to them...to listen to their struggles with smoking...to provide some good, old-fashioned nursing care.