Nurse practitioners' knowledge, practice and attitudes about tobacco cessation & lung cancer screening.

Purpose: To determine nurse practitioners' (NPs') knowledge, practice, and attitudes about tobacco cessation counseling and lung cancer early detection.
Data Source: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used to examine NPs' approaches to primary and secondary prevention of tobacco use among patients in western New York.
Conclusions: Among the 175 respondents, NPs appropriately counseled tobacco users on tobacco cessation. However, there was limited understanding of first-line pharmacological agents used for tobacco cessation and of how to manage treatment for a patient at high risk for lung cancer.
Implications for Practice: These findings suggest the need to implement professional educational programs aimed at conveying not only the importance of tobacco cessation counseling but also information on the most effective first-line pharmacological agents and appropriate management options for patients at increased risk of developing lung cancer.