<p>Whakauae&rsquo;s Dr Heather Gifford recently took up an invitation from the Department of Public Health, University of Otago to present at an open seminar on its Wellington campus in Newtown. Heather used the seminar opportunity to explore the challenges and learnings resulting from a 2016 aborted attempt to pilot and evaluate a tobacco cessation intervention with M&#257;ori student nurses. The seminar attracted wide attention perhaps due in part to it being billed as a &lsquo;no holds barred&rsquo; exploration of how &lsquo;a good intervention&rsquo; can end up &lsquo;going bad&rsquo; despite the best efforts of many.</p>

<p>The seminar covered Heather and the research team&rsquo;s experience as they grappled with the multiple demands of translating their recent research results into &lsquo;action on the ground&rsquo;. Between 2012 and 2015 Whakauae, with research partners NZNO and Taupua Waiora Centre for M&#257;ori Health Research (AUT), carried out HRC funded research with M&#257;ori nurses who smoke. That research explored nurses smoking cessation attitudes and behaviours along with the impact of smoking on their professional identities as health workers. It included an NZNO led survey of 410 nurses and nursing students along with in depth interviews with 100 nurses and student nurses.</p>

<p>Results of the 2012 &ndash; 2015 research highlighted that it was not unusual for nurses who smoke to be unfamiliar with cessation interventions and / or with the evidence supporting successful smoking cessation. Results additionally pointed to the need to develop a smoking cessation intervention specifically targeting M&#257;ori nursing students given that their smoking rate was higher than that of nurses. It emerged that student nurses were &lsquo;primed&rsquo; for quitting due to being in formal learning settings where the role of the health professional in promoting and maintaining health were a focus. That experience highlighted the contradictions around being a smoker as well as being a health professional for many students. &nbsp;</p>

<p>In the concluding phase of the 2012 &ndash; 2015 study, a M&#257;ori student nurses smoking cessation intervention model was developed by the research team and feasibility tested with audiences including M&#257;ori student nurses themselves. The results of feasibility testing strongly supported the pilot implementation and evaluation of the model.</p>

<p>On the strength of these results, Whakauae funded the necessary intervention research to be carried out through targeted schools of nursing. A research advisory group, which included members of the original research partnership along with a number of cessation experts, was set up. A highly experienced facilitator and M&#257;ori cessation expert was appointed to lead the intervention and an evaluation was commissioned. Heather&rsquo;s seminar described the progress of the pilot leading up to the decision, by the research leads, to &lsquo;call it quits&rsquo; in October 2016. It concluded with early results of the audit Whakauae is carrying out to establish what the &lsquo;tipping points&rsquo; were in implementing the intervention.</p>

<p>Leading the field are the research team&rsquo;s under-estimation of the challenges of working across sectors (research, health and tertiary education), especially when timeframes are tight, together with understanding the complexities of the tertiary education environment and the multiple, competing demands and stresses which students are juggling on a daily basis. Though there is work still to be done on negotiating the barriers to successfully implementing the intervention, Heather and the research team are confident that it has the potential to make the necessary impact on M&#257;ori student nurses smoking rates. She issued an invitation to the wider research community to consider taking up the challenge to moving the intervention on to the next level. Heather&rsquo;s power point seminar presentation is available on our publications page and a recording of the seminar is available on request.</p>
