(128) Current Status of Tobacco Education in Doctor of Pharmacy Programs in the United States

Objective : To characterize (a) tobacco cessation content, delivery, and assessment methods, (b) faculty perceptions of content adequacy, and (c) faculty interest in enhancing curricular content to align with pharmacists’ expanding role for prescribing tobacco cessation medications.

Methods: One faculty member responsible for teaching tobacco-related content at each school of pharmacy (n=142) was invited to participate in a web-based survey. Study measures assessed various aspects of tobacco education, including the quantity of instruction, delivery of educational materials, and topics covered during the 2021-22 academic year. Additional items gauged interest in attending a train-the-trainer program and integrating tobacco treatment specialist (TTS) training into the curriculum at their institution.

Results: Responses were received from 132 schools (93.0% response). Of these, 98.5% integrated tobacco cessation into required curriculum, and 15.2% delivered content within elective courses. The median hours of instruction were 5.0 (range, 1.0-18.0). Specific content included medications for cessation (100.0%), comprehensive counseling (96.2%), nicotine pharmacology (93.2%), epidemiology of tobacco use (87.1%), drug interactions with tobacco smoke (82.4%), forms of tobacco (81.7%), and brief interventions (76.3%). One third (33.3%) assessed tobacco cessation competency using objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs). Most (83.8%) believed their institution has adequate faculty expertise to teach comprehensive tobacco cessation, and 98.5% were interested in attending a train-the-trainer program to teach current models of pharmacist-provided tobacco cessation. Similarly, 95.4% were interested in incorporating TTS-level training into their curriculum.

Conclusions: Given pharmacists' expanding scope of practice for prescribing tobacco cessation medications, there is a need to enhance curricular content in PharmD programs. Faculty expressed interest in adapting coursework, including adding TTS training within curricula to enable graduates to treat tobacco use and dependence more effectively.