Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommend that every nurse should consult their patients about giving up smoking. This is an important public health role but in order to fulfil it, nurses need to have an understanding of the motivations and barriers that underpin smoking cessation. Furthermore, nurses need to know the options available to support the patient. This review provides an overview of the stages and motivations behind smokers' intentions. It aims to increase the knowledge of nurses and provide them with a greater understanding of the issues which smokers face. This review identified smoking cessation as a continuum. Nurses play an important role in raising the issue of smoking cessation with patients and they can offer a balanced perspective on the challenges they might face. They can then sign-post patients to the most appropriate smoking cessation options.