The School of Nursing of the University of Navarra participates along with 6 other European universities and the high school Catalan Oncology in the project INSTrUCT. This is an educational initiative and research aimed at developing an open resource educational in order to promote training in smoking among university students of Health Sciences.

The project was launched last November 11 and 12, at a meeting that brought together 20 academics and researchers in Barcelona. INSTrUCT, which is led by the Tobacco Control Unit of high school Catalan Oncology, will have a duration of 3 years, and has a funding of 360,596 euros from the ERASMUS+ European Grants.

On behalf of the University, the following professors from School of Nursing, Idoia Pardavila, Navidad Canga, María Pueyo and Hildegart González are part of this project of research with the support of the manager of project Itziar Gómez. The School of Nursing, as partner in this project, will contribute its wide and extensive experience in the field of smoking cessation initiated in 1996 by Professor Navidad Canga.

From left to right, professors María Pueyo, Hildegart González, Navidad Canga and Idoia Pardavila; and the manager of project, Itziar Gómez.

INSTrUCT will develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate an onlinetraining composed of various interactive materials. It will include videos, virtual simulation and an implementation guide for teachers that will be available in four languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese). "This resource will initially be tested among Nursing students from several of the universities involved in the project, but it is intended to be used, and easily introduced, in the curricula of different degrees in Health Sciences, such as Medicine or Pharmacy," explains Professor Idoia Pardavila.

Today, tobacco use is manager responsible for almost 700,000 deaths per year in Europe. In addition, 28% of European adults are smokers, which increases the risk of an increase in tobacco-related diseases such as cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular ailments. "The project INSTrUCT aims to provide Health Sciences students with the necessary skills to be able to support smokers who wish to quit, so that as future health professionals they can contribute to combating the tobacco epidemic in Europe," adds Professor Navidad Canga.

The institutions involved in the project, together with the University of Navarra, are the high school Catalan Oncology, King's College London, the technical school of Nursing of Coimbra, the University of Barcelona, the University of Lleida, the Free University of Brussels, and the high school Erasmus of Brussels.