Tobacco use is the second major cause of morbidity and the 4th most common health risk factor in the world. Medical professionals have a critical role in the process of smoking cessation both as advisers and behavioural models for the citizens. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of smoking among health care professionals, their smoking habits and personal attitudes toward smoking, role and the responsibility of health care professionals in the prevention of smoking. Out of the total number of examinees, 175 (35,1%) are active smokers, 29 (5,8%) are former smokers, and 295 (59,1%) are non-smokers. Nurses with secondary education disagree the most with the claim that passive smoking is more harmful to health (χ2 test, p = .008), also with the claim that the introduced Smoking Act is fair to smokers (χ2 test, p = .021). More nurses with secondary education disagree completely or partially that one should pay attention to smoking in the presence of non-smokers (χ2 test, p = .012). Training programs for health care workers are needed to improve their ability in smoking cessation techniques to provide active support to their patients.

Smoking is a gained habit with which one starts experimenting at the age of 10, and it usually becomes part of the habit at the age of 20. It is the combination of narcotic addiction and deep-seated smoking habits. Nicotine is the main cause of smoking addiction, and the custom of preparation for smoking itself and smell of cigarettes create addictive behavior among smokers. Today, nicotine is socially most widely accepted legal drug in the world, and its uptake into the organism through the respiratory tract is 10 times stronger than heroin. Addiction and necessity for cigarettes are constant and intense, and the treatment for smoking addicts is long and difficult. Smoking is a worldwide epidemic, which is closely connected to other addictions such as coffee, alcohol, drugs, and gambling.

This study intended to investigate whether the workload of nurses in the course of providing end-of-life care correlated with their religiousness, spiritual experience and level of agreement with dysthanasia procedures. The respondents included 279 nurses from four Croatian hospitals. A structured and validated instrument was applied. Almost 90% of respondents are religious, and almost 45% of them have daily spiritual experiences. Respondents, especially those with high levels of religiousness and spiritual experience, express a low level of agreement with dysthanasia (mean = 58.21; score = 25–125). Moreover, nurses self-rated (on a scale of 1–5) their workload as quite high, especially when performing contradictory tasks imposed on them by their superiors (mean = 3.05) and during direct contact with dying patients and their family members (mean = 2.56). This significantly highest level of workload was experienced by the youngest nurses (p = 0.01) and nurses with little work experience (p < 0.01). This study also indicated that nurses who agree with dysthanasia experienced a higher level of workload when providing end-of-life care (r = 0.178; p < 0.01), while more frequent spiritual experiences reduced the level of workload (r = −0.205; p < 0.01). A deeper understanding of nurses’ attitudes toward dysthanasia, as well as of their religiousness and spiritual experiences, may ensure the collection of data beneficial to the timely identification of potential risks caused by workload.

Poticaj za revalorizacijom starosti i starije dobi proizlazi iz tendencija suvremenoga društva koje na to životno doba gleda s obezvrijeđivanjem i stigmatizacijom trošnih agenata mirovinskih, socijalnih i zdravstvenih fondova. Stoga...