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Purpose: To explore why some hotels have implemented 100% smoke-free policies voluntarily, the perceived consequences of doing so, and media responses.Design: Qualitative study of hotel management and quantitative content analysis of media coverage of smoke-free hotels.Setting: Hotels and media based in the United States.Participants: Eleven representatives of 5 independent and 4 chain hotels. Other data included 265 news items about smoke-free hotels.Method: We conducted 30-minute semi-structured interviews with hotel representatives and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. We also searched 3 online news databases for news items about hotels in our study, and collaboratively coded retrieved items; we analyzed the content and slant of news items.Results: Business considerations, including guest requests, competitor action, and cost savings, were the primary motivations for implementing 100% smoke-free guest-room policies. Health concerns played a minimal role. Hotels received positive feedback from customers and employees. Media coverage was favorable, emphasizing positive aspects of going smoke-free; the overall slant of news items was positive or neutral. However, few hotels marketed the change.Conclusions: Since hotel customers and employees are likely to experience long periods of smoke exposure and smoke-free hotels appear to be so well received, it may be timely to pursue policies making all hotels smoke-free. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To examine perceptions of military personnel about tobacco use. Design. Secondary analysis of (1) focus group and (2) interview data. Setting. U.S. military. Subjects. Total participants (n = 241): Enlisted personnel, supervisors (n = 189 individuals participating in 23 focus groups), tobacco control managers, and policy leaders (n = 52 interview participants). Intervention. Not applicable. Measures. Not applicable. Analysis. Inductive, iterative coding for salient themes using an interpretive approach. Application of the concept of mediatory myths, used by institutions to cover over internal contradictions. Results. All types of participants endorsed the idea that tobacco was needed in the military for stress relief. Types of stress identified included fitting in, (relationships with coworkers and superiors) and control of workflow (taking breaks). Participants also discussed beliefs about the impact of tobacco on the military mission, and institutional sanction of tobacco use. Conclusion. Despite tobacco's well-documented negative effects on fitness, the myth that tobacco relieves stress serves several institutional functions in the military. It serves to minimize perceptions of stress on the fitness of personnel, suggests that stress can be managed solely by individuals, and institutionalizes tobacco use. Growing recognition among military leadership that countering stress is essential to fitness offers an opportunity to challenge this myth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Calls for public health practices, including research, to better integrate social theories of power, agency, and social change suggest that increased reflexivity about both the process and outcomes of community engagement is warranted. Yet few community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects specifically report nonresearch outcomes of such projects. The authors analyzed “secondary outcomes” of Protecting the ’Hood Against Tobacco (PHAT), a CBPR project conducted in San Francisco, California. Methods. Interpretive analysis of quasi-ethnographic project documentation, including meeting minutes, field notes, retrospective observations, and interviews. Results. PHAT participation created “ripple effects,” encouraging healthier behaviors and public health promotion among community research partners, prompting academics to confront power asymmetries and recognize community knowledge, and widening social networks. Conclusions. CBPR benefits both communities and researchers beyond the findings of the research itself. More systematically capturing these effects, perhaps through wider use of ethnographic approaches, could help enhance understanding of CBPR’s true contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much has been written about current and future nursing shortages and the numerical gap between nurses available and projected nursing needs. Very little analysis has focused on the implications of the pending expertise gap within the nursing workforce. A graying and retiring registered nurse workforce will greatly increase the proportion of novice nurses with minimal experience in bedside practice. The expertise gap will also affect nursing education. This article explores the implications of these phenomena. Without careful planning, efforts to address the numerical shortage may inadvertently worsen the expertise gap, contributing to unsafe care and affecting nursing retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a basic framework for assessing the policy environment. Environment is a key concept in nursing's much-discussed "metaparadigm," but the policy environment is rarely considered. Too often, bedside nurses do not recognize the policy dimensions of clinical practice issues. Yet nursing assessment involves identifying and appraising aspects of patients' situations that are salient to their responses to actual or potential health problems. Policy may be such a salient factor, as it shapes the physical aspects of patients' surroundings; the relationships possible between practitioners and patients; the institutions in which health care is offered; and, on a broader scale, the prospects for global survival. This article proposes a question-based framework for clinical practice nurses to use in assessing the policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the nursing profession has a growing role in the health policy arena, the rapidly changing health care environment means that clinicians need a sophisticated understanding of health policy. Nurses are assuming leadership roles in advocacy, research, analysis, and policy development, implementation, and evaluation, contributing to a growing need to educate nurses to specialize in health policy research and analysis. This article provides an overview of a new master's and doctoral educational program specializing in health policy for advanced practice nurses who are culturally diverse and sensitive to issues of diversity. The program, currently in its third year of operation at the University of California San Francisco, School of Nursing, is addressing the gap in nursing education and practice expertise in health policy. The program is supported through funding by the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, Advanced Nurse Training program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on a study which discussed the content and accessibility of sex education information on the Internet. Criticism regarding the methodology of the study; Impact of Internet; Conduct of research using the Internet.