Nursing leadership in tobacco dependence treatment to advance health equity: An American Academy of Nursing policy manuscript.

Background: Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States and is a significant cause of health disparities.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to update the Tobacco Control policy paper published over a decade ago by the American Academy of Nursing's Health Behavior Expert Panel Tobacco Control subcommittee.

Methods: Members reviewed and synthesized published literature from 2012 to 2024 to identify the current state of the science related to nurse-led tobacco dependence treatment and implications for nursing practice, education, and research.

Findings: The results confirmed that nurse-led tobacco dependence treatment interventions are successful in enhancing cessation outcomes across settings.

Discussion: Recommendations for nursing leaders include: promote tobacco dependence treatment as standard care, accelerate research on implementation of evidence-based treatment guidelines, reduce health disparities by extending access to evidence-based treatment, increase nursing competency in providing tobacco treatment, and drive equity-focused tobacco control policies.