Objective: To develop, implement, and evaluate a targeted educational intervention focusing on smoking cessation with final-year undergraduate pharmacy students.
Design: A smoking-cessation educational workshop entitled Smoking Cessation in Pharmacy (SCIP) was designed on the principles of adult learning and implemented with a full cohort of final-year undergraduate pharmacy students at the University of Sydney. A previously validated questionnaire testing the knowledge and attitudes of respondents was administered both before and after implementation of the designed workshop to evaluate changes resulting from the intervention. Informal feedback was obtained from students.
Assessment: Pre-course mean total knowledge and attitude scores calculated were 65.8±9.1 and 86.4±12.1, respectively. The post-course mean total knowledge score was 74.9±8.1, and the attitude score was 88.8±9.1 Improvement in knowledge and attitudes was significant (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Educational interventions for pharmacy students designed with careful attention to pedagogic principles can improve knowledge about evidence-based smoking-cessation strategies and enhance positive attitudes to pharmacist roles in smoking cessation.
Keywords: pharmacy students; smoking cessation; workshop.