Limitations
In addition to the convenience sample and the small
sample size, there are a number of factors that should be
considered in the interpretation of these findings. Without
a comparison group, we are unable to confirm if
the improvement in the frequency of nurses’ interventions
was due to attendance at the educational program
or other factors. The nurses who attended these programs
and completed the surveys may have been more
interested in tobacco control than nurses who did not
participate, and thus provided more positive responses.
The sample size did not allow for subgroup analysis such
as the comparison of never, former, and current smokers.
Although each nurse faculty who led the workshop
was provided with a packet of educational materials, we
were not able to guarantee the fidelity of the delivery
of the program at each of the hospitals. This study did
not assess increases in knowledge per se, or link nurses’
self-reported frequency of cessation interventions with
changes in the number of smokers who received interventions.
Similar to the protocol by Katz et al. (2012),
future studies might consider providing a direct feedback
loop to nurses about their performance.