Evaluation of Competition as a Method to Recruit Nurses into an Employee Self-Help Quit-Smoking Program

Because the prevalence of smoking among nurses remains higher than that among members of other health professions, a study was designed to evaluate whether competition among nursing groups would be an effective way of recruiting nurses into a worksite self-help quit-smoking program. Registered nurses were divided into “teams” along naturally occurring competitive specialties. Both nonsmokers and smokers were invited to participate in the competition. At the end of a 2-week period, the team with the greatest percentage of smokers who enrolled in a work-site self-help quit-smoking program would win. Smoking prevalence among each team was determined through a questionnaire/interview administered to all head nurses in the hospital. A comparison site was used to determine the effect of this strategy. Results indicate that during the 2-week period of competition, no nurses called or came in to the quit-smoking program. Formal and informal surveys enabled the researchers to identify reasons why the nurses did not participate. Recommendations for making competition among nurses a more effective strategy are provided.