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Tobacco cessation intervention has a positive impact on quality of care. For health professionals, limited competency in this area may be associated with poor training during their academic programs. There is a clear need to further develop and implement training programs to improve tobacco cessation knowledge, skills, and attitudes among healthcare students. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the innovative online training program "Brief Intervention in Smoking Cessation" for healthcare students to improve their knowledge, skills, and attitudes. A pre-post evaluation study with a satisfaction assessment tool was used. Seven universities from four European countries, including Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, participated. One thousand and seventy-two (1072) undergraduate students participated, with 851 completing the online program. All participants completed the " Brief Intervention in Smoking Cessation " online program, which consisted of five theoretical modules, five videos, and three virtual simulation cases between January 2020 and June 2022. Knowledge was assessed by a multiple-choice test, and practical skills were assessed by a simulation algorithm, both of which were developed by education and smoking cessation experts. Competency was achieved when students successfully completed both assessments. Satisfaction was measured using an ad hoc 16-item questionnaire. Pre-post changes in knowledge were assessed using a paired Student's t -test. Eighty-six percent of the students achieved smoking cessation competency. Students significantly improved their knowledge score on a scale of 0 to 10 points, with a mean pre-program score of 3.79 vs a mean post-program score of 7.33 ([−3.7 - -3.4] p < 0.001), acquiring sufficient attitudes and skills (simulation mean of 7.4 out of 10 points). Students were highly satisfied with the program (8.2 out of 10) and recommended it to other students (8.4 out of 10). The "Brief Intervention in Smoking Cessation" online training program is effective for the acquisition of smoking cessation competencies among European health profession students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve smoking cessation, training of health professions students is essential. However, no specific instrument is available to assess factors that may affect students' learning about smoking cessation practice. To adapt and validate the Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors and Organization questionnaire in the population of undergraduate health professions students. Methodological research. The researchers conducted this study with 511 Spanish and 186 English health professions students from four different universities. We used a four-step approach: 1) adaptation of the items to the target population and validation of the content by a panel of experts; 2) a pilot study to test face validity; 3) linguistic adaptation of the Spanish version to English; and 4) the psychometric assessment based on construct validity, criterion validity and internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four subscales for the Spanish version, namely 'Individual knowledge and skills', 'Individual attitudes and beliefs', 'Organizational support' and 'Organizational resources', which accounted for 85.1% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis in the holdout Spanish and English samples revealed adequate goodness-of-fit values, supporting the factor structure. Hypotheses testing demonstrated significant differences by capacitation in smoking cessation interventions and degree courses, providing further evidence regarding construct validity. All the subscales correlated positively with the criterion variables (5 A's smoking cessation model), except for the 'Organizational resources' subscale, which was not significantly correlated with the 5 A's. The overall Cronbach's alpha was.83 for the Spanish version and.88 for the English one. Our results provide empirical support for the use of the Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors and Organization questionnaire for Students as a reliable and valid instrument to assess knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and organization perceptions in health professions students, which is essential for competent smoking cessation practice. Interestingly, 'Organizational resources' subscale presented the lowest correlations among factors and did not correlate with any component of the 5 A's, suggesting the need of enhancing students' responsibility and involvement during their internships, as well as the interest of some organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]