In collaboration with the WVU School of Dentistry, six students at two campus locations of the WVU School of Nursing earned their Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist (CTTS) credentials.
After completing the program herself in 2019, Dr. Krystal Abucevicz-Swick, a senior lecturer at the Keyser Campus of the School of Nursing, collaborated with Suann Gaydos, Director of the Certified Tobacco Treatment Training Program, to develop the nursing elective course, NSG: Tobacco Treatment.
“In the program, I learned practical evidence-based strategies to help patients combat tobacco dependence,” Dr. Abucevicz-Swick said. “I work as a Nurse Practitioner in Pulmonology and use what I learned from the program every day to help people make positive changes. I see the value of the program and want to empower other nurses to help fight the tobacco epidemic.”
During the Fall 2025 semester, three students from Keyser (Madison Moyers, Brooklyn Palmer, and Brooklynn Rohrbaugh) and three students from the Beckley Campus (Emma Brumfield, Emily Justice, and Kylie Lilly) completed the elective and passed their CTTS certification exam.
The tobacco treatment elective is an online, hybrid course offered to students on all School of Nursing campuses that offer the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. The course is taught by experts in the field in multiple disciplines through a mixture of interactive self-paced learning modules and virtual classroom activities. The course also prepares students to sit for the TTS certification.
The students who completed the elective are being honored by the Health Sciences Center with a special cord to wear at graduation. The braided cord colors represent the following: Light blue, signifying the World Health Organizations' blue-ribbon campaign created to inform tobacco use disorder harms and support smoke-free environments; lavender as the color symbolizing addiction recovery awareness; and old gold representing WVU for the dedication of some HSC programs’ integration of tobacco treatment specialist certification into curricula.
“Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the U.S. and in West Virginia,” Dr. Abucevicz-Swick said. “Nurses are in a unique position to help people with tobacco cessation. Not only does the course prepare students to combat the tobacco epidemic at both a patient and population health level, but students also have the opportunity to become Tobacco Treatment Specialist certified.”
The elective is offered each fall semester. For more information, email Dr. Abucevicz-Swick at kmabuceviczswick@hsc.wvu.edu.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Wendy Holdren
Director of Communications and Marketing
WVU School of Nursing
304-581-1772; wendy.holdren@hsc.wvu.edu