Sallyann Miller emphasises the importance of promoting smoking cessation among patients to ensure that their injuries can repair in a timely manner

Patients commonly present to the emergency department (ED) with fractures. Since it is known that smoking is a contributory factor to delayed bone union, emergency nurses should deliver smoking cessation advice to those patients with fractures who smoke. This article briefly examines the literature on cigarette smoking and its effects on bone healing and suggests that emergency nurse practitioners can use brief interventions in the ED to encourage patients with fractures to stop smoking.