A group of professors and researchers of the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra has collaborated in the creation of guide of the first semi-authorized online course to promote training in smoking cessation among students of health professions. This tool -open to all European universities and financed by the ERASMUS + program in the framework of the European project INSTrUCT- will be tested by more than a thousand students from 4 European countries.

The new guide, graduate 'INSTrUCT, an open resource educational in brief intervention in smoking cessation in university students'(downloadable now at this link at Spanish and also in English at the following link ), will allow professors/tutors to "carry out the implementation and assessment of the course detailing the role of the professor and student body in its development" explains one of its authors, professor and researcher Miren Idoia Pardavila.

The INSTRUCT course has as goal train to health sciences students in brief smoking cessation interventions. To this end, five theoretical modules, five videos and three virtual simulation cases have been developed. "To carry it out, we estimate that students should dedicate between 25 and 30 hours, of which 5 would be for theoretical reading and video viewing, between 1 and 2 hours to carry out the virtual simulation and the bulk of 15-27 hours would correspond to the individual work , in addition to the approximate two hours of assessment", explains the expert.

After the testing phase, which is starting now, the implementation and assessment of the course will be carried out to detect aspects of improvement, which will be incorporated before offering it openly to all health sciences Schools in Europe.

8 million deaths worldwide due to smoking

"INSTrUCT is an innovative e-learning resource educational that places student at the center of the teaching -learning process and allows the integration of a wide range of innovative training and evaluation activities to improve the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies of students in subject of smoking cessation," adds co-author, professor and researcher Navidad Canga.

In addition to the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, the Tobacco Control Unit of the Institut Català d'Oncologia (ICO), King's College London, the Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the Universitat de Barcelona, the Erasmushogeschool Brussel and the Universitat de Lleida are also participating.

This initiative is led by the Tobacco Control Unit of high school Catalan Oncology. With a planned duration of four years and funding of 360,596 euros from the ERASMUS+ European Grants, it aims to help combat smoking: the leading preventable cause of disease, disability and death in the world, manager of nearly eight million deaths a year, 700,000 of them in Europe, where about 50% of smokers will die prematurely according to data of the European Commission.