title: Preparedness for the smoking cessation role among health sciences students in Kuwait.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aim was to assess students' preparedness for the smoking cessation role after a teaching module on tobacco cessation and to assess the relationship between smoking status and preparedness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pharmacy students attended a 4-hour module on the role of health professionals in smoking cessation based on the Rx for Change training program. Two years after the first introduction of the module, a questionnaire on preparedness and smoking status was filled in by 64 pharmacy students who had attended the module and 243 students from other health sciences that had not been exposed to the module.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Preparedness scores for the smoking cessation role for pharmacy students were significantly higher (mean = 19.5, n = 63) for the nonsmoking pharmacy students compared to other nonsmoking students in medicine (mean = 16.2, n = 149), dentistry (mean = 16.1, n = 40) and physical therapy (mean = 14.9, n = 16) (p = 0.009). The smoking prevalence was 3% among all females and 31% among all males. Smoking students were significantly less likely (p = 0.031) to agree that it is their professional responsibility to help patients quit smoking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Significant and long-lasting differences in students' perception of preparedness for the smoking cessation role based on exposure to a short teaching module were demonstrated. Furthermore, our results support previous findings that smoking compromises attitude towards helping smokers to quit.
authors: Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Health Sciences Centre, Kuwait University, Jabriya, Kuwait. m.waheedi@ku.edu.kw
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Waheedi
authors: Aisha M
authors: AM
authors: Al-Tmimy
authors: Hannes
authors: H
authors: Enlund
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult