From Knowledge to Action: Improving Nicotine Dependence Screening and Smoking Cessation Support in Cardiac Care
May 23, 2025 from 12:10pm EST to 12:40pm EST
Quitting smoking immediately following an acute coronary syndrome event is safe and can substantially reduce future outcomes such as death or re-infarctions. As frontline healthcare providers, the St. Paul’s Hospital Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) nurses play a pivotal role in identifying individuals at risk, offering education on the health risks of smoking, and empowering patients to quit. Canadian tobacco guidelines recommend that all patients in acute care settings are screened for tobacco use and be offered treatment to those who actively smoke. Despite this knowledge, recent health record audits revealed less than 40% of CICU admissions had documented screening of nicotine dependence.
We sought to address this gap in care through a knowledge translation (KT) initiative to improve screening of nicotine dependence on patient admission, encouraging nurses in supporting smokers, and creating access to smoking cessation expertise during the patient hospital stay and at discharge. Our pathway to improve care included collaboration across disciplines, streamlining direct nursing consults to smoking cessation experts, dedicated sustainable training, and partnership with patients.
Evaluation of this KT initiative is ongoing. Regular health record audits demonstrated that there are areas for improvement; there has not been a significant increase in documentation of nicotine dependence. We conducted nursing surveys exploring barriers to practice revealing discomfort with nurse-initiated referrals and charting ‘fatique’ with electronic medical records. Implications include additional work to address local barriers through further engagement with CICU staff and patient partners. We plan to share systems level barriers with leadership to inform the regional strategy on smoking cessation.
Speakers / Panelists
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From Knowledge to Action: Improving Nicotine Dependence Screening and Smoking Cessation Support in Cardiac Care
May 23, 2025 from 12:10pm EST to 12:40pm EST
Patricia Johnson MSN
RN, CCN(c)
Patricia Johnson MSN
Patricia Johnson MSN
RN, CCN(c)
Patricia Johnson is a Clinical Nurse Educator in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Paul’s Hospital. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of British Columbia. With over 18 years of experience in various roles across the Heart Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital, she brings a deep passion for cardiology, clinical education, and advancing nursing practice. Her work focuses on supporting frontline staff, fostering evidenced-based care, and promoting lifelong learning in the critical care setting.