Nightingales Nurses Profiled

Nightingale Profile: Joan O'Connor RN

Joan O’Connor is a part time RN who works at a Psychiatric Day Hospital in Victoria, BC, Canada. For the past two and a half years one of her many duties has been to run a weekly group called ‘Tobacco Reduction and Cessation for People Living With Mental Illnesses.”  For most of the 2 ½ years she has been the only person in her area responsible to help any of the huge population of mental health outpatients who express an interest in quitting smoking. She has had very few resources and little time at her disposal and has had to get creative in many ways, both to educate herself and to provide interventions that actually help her clients. She successfully lobbied her employer to provide free Nicotine Replacement Therapy for clients, which has been a big help. Inspired by the weekly poignant stories of her clients, Joan wrote a song (only the second one she's ever written), which, with group members and a small budget from the Vancouver Island Health Authority, was made into a music video. It has been posted on You Tube since April/08, and as of November 20th, 2008, has been seen by almost 3600 people in 50 countries! Every client in the group was able to participate by making written cards for the video, even if they preferred not to appear on camera. The clients are proud that their video is helping not only themselves, but other people worldwide. Joan continues to lobby for much needed resources. She hopes to increasingly use art, humor, exercise, and positive human relationships to help mental health clients cope with their disproportionately prevalent tobacco addictions. She is tired of seeing Big Tobacco profit from the physical, psychological, social, and economic suffering of her clients. Joan is happy to be part of a network of nurses trying to deal with the ravages of tobacco in our world.

Follow the link to see ‘Just Say No to Big Tobacco Co’ Be sure to click on ‘more info’ to the right of the video for the text explanation

 

Nightingale Profile: Sophia S.C. Chan PhD, MPH, MEd, PRDHCE, DNA, RN, RSCN, RTN, FFPH, FAAN

Sophia Chan is currently Professor of Nursing, Head of the Department of Nursing Studies and Assistant Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Having trained in and practiced pediatric nursing in Hong Kong and London, Chan subsequently specialized in health promotion with a particular focus on the management of tobacco dependency.  She read her Masters of Education at the University of Manchester, Masters of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed doctoral studies at the University of Hong Kong.  Chan is awarded a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (through distinction), Royal College of Physicians of United Kingdom (FFPH(RCP)(UK); and the first nurse in Hong Kong to be awarded Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). Chan’s research portfolio explores comparative ethno-cultural differences between Chinese and other smokers through the synthesis of epidemiological and social science methodologies.  It also examines professional role differentiation among health and social care workers in the delivery of smoking cessation services.  Chan pioneered the first smoking cessation counseling program (both clinic-based and via telephone quitlines) locally and has been training medical, nursing, pharmacy, and social work professionals in tobacco dependency treatment interventions throughout China. Most recently, she developed a Women Against Tobacco Taskforce (WATT) in Hong Kong to help women smokers quit, and had also initiated the first Youth Quitline in Hong Kong in 2005.

 

Nightingale Profile: Carol Southard RN MSN

Carol Southard, RN, MSN, an American Lung Association certified instructor with over 20 years experience and proven success, is a pioneer in the field of smoking cessation. Carol serves as a Tobacco Cessation Consultant for Chicago area hospitals and has published articles and presented numerous workshops and seminars for health professionals as well as for community groups on smoking cessation throughout the nation. Carol served on the expert panels of both the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and the Illinois Academy of Pediatrics each of which produced CME presentations entitled “Adult Smoking Cessation: Intervention Strategies for Primary Care Providers” and “Adolescent Tobacco Use - Prevention and Cessation: Strategies for Primary Care Providers” respectively. Recently Carol was the Project Consultant for the Smoking Cessation Initiative of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and currently serves as a Study Therapist for the Chicago STOP Smoking Research Project (C-STOP), at the University of Chicago. 

Carol is an active volunteer for the American Lung Association and co-founded Chicago Second Wind: A Chicagoland Smoking Cessation Initiative. Carol was a founding member of the Nightingales Nurses. 

 

Nightingales Nurse Activists Comments on Attending Tobacco Company Shareholder Meetings