Introduction:
Nurses, when educated in tobacco cessation interventions, are well positioned to address smoking with their patients achieving a long-time quit rate of approximately 10%, according to the literature.

Methods:
Together in partnership with the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care and University of California in Los Angeles, USA, and the Society for Treatment of Tobacco Dependence, Czech Republic, an international project funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation “The Eastern Europe Nurses‘ Centre of Excellence in Tobacco Control – Developing Nurse Champions for Tobacco Dependence Treatment” (EE-COE) involves six Eastern European countries (CZ, HU, MD, RO, SI, SK). The EE-COE offers to nurses various educational activities in tobacco control, i.e. train of trainer workshops, short seminars, or online e-learning. Through these methods positively evaluated in previous projects, thousands of nurses have already been educated.

Results:
Results from EE-COE 2016 five country 3-month post-training online surveys, a total of 507 trained nurses estimated that they offered cessation intervention to 850 to 1239 patients a week (minimum / maximum weekly estimates, respectively), a mean of 1,044 patients per week. Assuming a 10% long-term quit rate from nurses’ intervention, we estimated that 104 patients quit tobacco use per week, or 5,408 ex-smokers per year in five countries alone. Simplified calculation of investment into nurses’ education translated to $63 USD spent per ex-smoker.

Conclusion:
Investment into nurses‘ education in tobacco control knowledge and skills is an effective approach with substantial impact on patients quitting smoking, improved patient health, in addition to health care cost savings.