Enhancing readiness of health profession students to address tobacco cessation with patients through online training

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate effectiveness of an online training program in preparing health care students to address tobacco use with patients. Methods: The program was evaluated on knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, intended behavior, and user satisfaction. Participants consisted of 4,180 medical, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and other allied health professions students. Multiple choice questions assessed knowledge before and after the educational experience. Likert scales were used for self-reporting of attitude, self-efficacy, and intended behaviors towards tobacco cessation treatments in both a pre-module and post-module survey condition. Likert scores for satisfaction were recorded in a postmodule survey. Two sample paired t-tests were used to measure statistical significance. Results:The knowledge increased significantly for all modules across users. Attitude, self-efficacy, and intended behavior scores increased. The Overview course's knowledge score increased from 59% to 89% (t (649) = 61.9; p < 0.0001). Mean knowledge scores for all modules combined increased from 51.5% to 74.0% posttest. Satisfaction with the curriculum was high, with a mean score of 4.6 out of 5. Conclusions: The success of this program is evident by overall satisfaction, and increases in knowledge, selfefficacy, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as the ease with which it was deployed to thousands of students. Results of this study demonstrate that online training in tobacco cessation is an efficient and effective method of teaching students skills in tobacco cessation counseling, and can fill a vital gap in existing curricula.

Psychologists and Smoking Cessation Intervention: Unrealised Potential

“…The WHO recommends that all health professionals be trained to advise and help smokers stop smoking, and that education and training start at the undergraduate level and continue on through clinical training (WHO, 2001;WHO, 2003). Evidence from a range of health professional training programmes suggests that relatively brief training can have an impact (Borelli et al, 2008;Sheffer et al, 2009;Maynard et al, 2012). To provide further training for health professionals such as psychologists following the completion of formal university education, it may be important to explore flexible forms of delivery, such as tele-health, videoconferencing and on-line formats (Mitchell et al, 2008;Maynard et al, 2012).…”

“…Evidence from a range of health professional training programmes suggests that relatively brief training can have an impact (Borelli et al, 2008;Sheffer et al, 2009;Maynard et al, 2012). To provide further training for health professionals such as psychologists following the completion of formal university education, it may be important to explore flexible forms of delivery, such as tele-health, videoconferencing and on-line formats (Mitchell et al, 2008;Maynard et al, 2012). To our knowledge, there has been no investigation of the smoking cessation training which might be feasibly, acceptably and cost-effectively provided to psychologists, in Australia or elsewhere.…”

The Role of Academic Pharmacy in Tobacco Cessation and Control

“…20,31,32,34,35 These topics should be initiated early in the curricula of health professional schools to instill the concept of tobacco cessation as an essential element in the treatment and prevention of a wide range of medical conditions. 36 Web-based training has been used as a method for enhancing pharmacy students' knowledge, self-efficacy, and readiness to address tobacco cessation; 37,38 however, research is needed to assess the comparative effectiveness of live versus computer-assisted instruction in health professional education. 39 Given the scope of content and the complexity of counseling for tobacco dependence, a minimum of 6 hours of training is necessary for students to master the basic 5 A's approach to counseling, including patient education for cessation medications.…”

Review and Evaluation of Online Tobacco Dependence Treatment Training Programs for Health Care Practitioners

“…However, in many countries throughout the world, tobacco dependence treatment services are not well developed and the main pathway of accessing treatment for tobacco dependence is through the clinical interactions between a doctor and patient. There is evidence that training health care professionals in smoking cessation interventions is associated with increased quit rates in smokers [ 2 ] and that individuals who smoke are more likely to make an attempt to quit when advised to do so by a health care practitioner [ 3 , 4 ]. Despite the global health and financial burden of disease from tobacco use, the desire of most patients to quit, and routine contact between health care practitioners and patients, few practitioners are appropriately trained or feel confident to effectively treat tobacco addiction in their patients [ 4 ].…”

“…There is evidence that training health care professionals in smoking cessation interventions is associated with increased quit rates in smokers [ 2 ] and that individuals who smoke are more likely to make an attempt to quit when advised to do so by a health care practitioner [ 3 , 4 ]. Despite the global health and financial burden of disease from tobacco use, the desire of most patients to quit, and routine contact between health care practitioners and patients, few practitioners are appropriately trained or feel confident to effectively treat tobacco addiction in their patients [ 4 ]. To address the high rates of tobacco prevalence and increase cessation levels among individuals who smoke, appropriate and effective training for health care practitioners in tobacco dependence treatment is pertinent.…”