A review of the provision of smoking cessation education within UK midwifery school curricula
| Author(s)
Ms Jane Forman, Dr Maria Duaso and Dr James Harris
| | Presenter(s) |
Jane Forman Senior Lecturer, Kingston & St Georges Faculty of Health and Social Care, London |
Dr Maria Duaso Senior Lecturer, Kings College London | Abstract From the literature reviewed it is apparent that the importance of health professionals supporting patients to stop smoking is widely acknowledged. However smoking cessation education provision is inconsistent. There re currently no studies available that have looked at smoking cessation education in midwifery curriculums in the UK.
Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the current state of smoking cessation teaching that is taking part in UK midwifery schools and to ascertain what the perceived barriers to teaching this topic are.
This was a cross sectional study with a comparative, descriptive design. An adapted questionnaire was used to examine midwifery schools smoking cessation education provision. All universities that offered a midwifery undergraduate course in the UK were approached . The questionnaire was distributed via email to participants, in conjunction with a participant information sheet. In total 29 respondents were recruited into this study (response rate 55%). Cross tabulation of descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data.
Results: All of the schools reported teaching the harmful effects of tobacco use (n=29). 86% (n= 27). 82 %(n=24) of schools taught ways to asist a quit attempt, such as nicotine replacement therapy. The most commonly taught topics were smoking and pregnancy, smoking and breastfeeding and sudden infant death sydrome .The least commonly taught topics were pharmacological interventions and relapse prevention. Just over half of midwifery schools reported spending over 2 hours on smoking cessation throughout their programmes (52.5%). The most common method of teaching ( 82%) was face to face lectures. Both members of staff and external speakers were used by schools to teach smoking cessation fairly equally.34 % of respondents reported that there were no barriers to including smoking cessation teaching on the curriculum, however 20% disagreed. When there were barriers, the most commonly reported ones to teaching were lack of smoking cessation knowledge amongst staff (17%), no space in a crowded curriculum (17%), and administrative problems (13%).
Conclusion: The results from this survey suggest that much could be done to improve upon the smoking cessation education provision in midwifery curricula .The number of women who give up smoking whilst pregnant based on an interaction with a health professional is at best small (Carson et al 2012) and evidence- based and targeted training for midwives is imperative to rectify this position.
| Presenter biography Jane Forman is a is a lecturer at the Faculty of Health and Social Care at Kingston and St Georges Univeristy. She originally graduated in nursing at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, and Midwifery at City University. She has also held a academic position at King’s College London.
Her research and teaching interests are primarily in simulation and skills training, gender based violence and public health issues , particularly smoking. Janes current research focuses on smoking cessation education and how to involve hard to reach service users in health education.
Dr Maria Duaso is a lecturer at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London. She originally graduated in nursing at the University of Navarra (Spain) and then moved to the UK to carry out her PhD at Durham University, focusing on the acceptability and implementation of non-smoking policies. Since then she has held academic positions at Reading University and King’s College London.
Her research interests primarily lie in understanding how to change health behaviours, particularly smoking. Maria’s current research focuses on the management of smoking cessation in substance misuse settings.”
| Source of funding: Part of a MSc
| Declaration of interest: No conflict of interest
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