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Background Hospitalisation of a child is a unique opportunity for health staff to offer smoking cessation support; that is screening for carer smoking status, discussing cessation and providing interventions to carers who smoke. This has the potential to reduce the child’s exposure to second-hand smoke, and in turn tobacco related illnesses in children. However, these interventions are not always offered in paediatric wards. The aim of this study was to explore the provision and prioritisation of smoking cessation support to patient carers in a paediatric ward with a high proportion of Aboriginal patients and carers in a regional area of Australia’s Northern Territory. Methods This is a qualitative descriptive study of data collected through semi-structured interviews with 19 health staff. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was performed on the transcripts. Results We found low prioritisation of addressing carer smoking due to, a lack of systems and procedures to screen for smoking and provide quitting advice and unclear systems for providing more detailed cessation support to carers. Staff were demotivated by the lack of clear referral pathways. There were gaps in skills and knowledge, and health staff expressed a need for training opportunities in smoking cessation. Conclusion Health staff perceived they would provide more cessation support if there was a systematic approach with evidence-based resources for smoking cessation. These resources would include guidelines and clinical record systems with screening tools, clear action plans and referral pathways to guide clinical practice. Health staff requested support to identify existing training opportunities on smoking cessation.

Issue addressedHealth professionals have described barriers to providing carer smoking cessation support in children's wards. This article reports the findings of a research translation process that explored opportunities and developed pathways for change.MethodsA facilitated discussion workshop and scheduled stakeholder meetings were used to evaluate research evidence and translate it to an evidence‐informed organisational change process, with actions for implementation. Workshop and meeting participants were senior health staff with either a pharmacist, personnel with expertise in alcohol and other drugs, medical or nursing backgrounds, and who held senior managerial roles who worked in a hospital in the Northern Territory. A qualitative approach was used. The data from the workshop were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. The first author took notes for meetings that were not recorded and analysed these alongside the transcripts.ResultsThe process was able to initiate change to overcome barriers to providing carer smoking cessation support. All participants agreed to prioritise and make carer smoking cessation everybody's responsibility and supported a systematic approach, including provision of nicotine replacement therapy, new record‐keeping systems, and training to address staff knowledge deficits and skills gaps. This movement to solution‐focused change continued after the workshop.ConclusionsWith some preparation, a research translation workshop and meetings with selected leaders can initiate organisational change in similar settings and is consistent with theories of planned change.So what?This article describes the use of a process to support health promotion through new policies and practices following research which identified barriers in a hospital ward.