A survey of staff attitudes to smoking-related policy and intervention in psychiatric and general health care settings.
BACKGROUND
Although the move to smoke-free hospital settings is generally a popular initiative, it may be a more challenging and controversial issue in mental health care. A survey was carried out to investigate differences in attitudes between clinical staff in psychiatric and general medical settings to smoke-free policy and intervention.


METHODS
The sample comprised 2574 NHS staff working in two Acute Hospital Trusts and one Mental Health Trust in England. Attitudes were examined on two factors: health care settings as smoke-free environments and the role of staff in stop smoking intervention.


RESULTS
The findings indicated that attitudes on the two factors were only moderately correlated. Psychiatric staff expressed significantly less favourable attitudes than general staff to smoke-free health care settings and also to the role of staff in stop smoking intervention. The largest difference between the settings concerned the implementation of smoking bans. While approximately 1 in 10 staff in the general setting disagreed with a smoking ban in their wards or clinics, nearly one in three psychiatric staff was against such a ban in their setting.


CONCLUSIONS
Staff attitudes need to be carefully considered, particularly in psychiatric settings, in attempts to implement smoke-free policies in health care settings.
McNally
Lisa
L
Department of Mental Health-Addictive Behaviour, St George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK.
Oyefeso
Adenekan
A
Annan
Jan
J
Perryman
Katherine
K
Bloor
Roger
R
Freeman
Steve
S
Wain
Barbara
B
Andrews
Hilary
H
Grimmer
Martin
M
Crisp
Arthur
A
Oyebode
Deji
D
Ghodse
A Hamid
AH
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000523:psychology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires