3 min read
The Cigarette and the Nurse: Why Healthcare Workers Smoke—and What It Means for Patients
Nurses smoke at rates comparable to the general population—despite witnessing the consequences of smoking daily. The nurse-smoker embodies the contradiction of addiction: knowledge does not equal immunity.
A nurse who has cared for hundreds of patients dying of lung cancer steps outside the hospital for a cigarette. **The contradiction is not hypocrisy—it's addiction. The nurse knows more about the consequences of smoking than almost anyone. The knowledge does not protect them from the addiction. The nurse-smoker embodies the central truth of nicotine: information is necessary but insufficient for behavior change.**
