Tobacco Consumption in Nursing and Psychology Students: the Importance of Master´s Curricula

Abstract

Introduction

Health professionals play important roles in teaching, promoting and changing harmful behaviors to the individual’s health, such as smoking. Educational institutions are responsible for the curricula contents promoting these roles.

Objectives

to characterize first year students from Nursing and Psychology Masters in: tobacco use prevalence, attitudes, exposure to smoking environments and training about tobacco; compare the two courses in these variables, exploring particularly if education about tobacco is associated with a lower/higher prevalence of tobacco use, to cessation behaviors and different attitudes towards tobacco.

Methods

116 students from Nursing (n = 59; 50,86%) and Psychology Master (n = 57; 49,14%), with mean ages, respectively, of 23,6 (SD = 4,89) and 29,7 (SD = 10,40) filled in the Global Health Professional Survey.

Results

In both courses the majority had already experienced smoking (Psychology, 86,0%; Nursing, 88,1%), having initiated consumption between 11 and 15 years (Psychology, 43,9%; Nursing, 32,9%). There were no differences concerning training, but the proportion of students who claimed that the school regulation “prohibits smoking", to have learned the approach to be used for smoking cessation, the importance of tobacco registration and of providing support materials to assist patients in ceasing consumption, was higher in the Nursing course.

Discussion

There does not seem to exist differences regarding consumption, attitudes, exposure to smoking environments and training between the two courses, but the curriculum or way it is taught in the Nursing course seems to accentuate the role that nurses might have as professionals in the cessation of consumption behaviors.