Tobacco intervention training in American College of Nurse-Midwives accredited education programs

The objective of this study was to assess the content, amount of time, and educational techniques used in tobacco intervention training in American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) accredited programs. All 43 ACNM-accredited programs were surveyed; 34 (79%) responded. Almost one in three programs (29%) offered fewer than 3 hours of instruction in tobacco education. The programs were more likely to offer training in the clinical science areas and least likely to offer training in the sociopolitical areas. Few programs (38%) required students to be taught smoking cessation techniques with patients in a clinical setting. The main barriers to teaching more (>3 h) tobacco education were not enough time in the curriculum (28%) and not having staff who are adequately trained (15%). Midwife education programs need to increase their instructional efforts, especially in the clinical science and sociopolitical areas, if midwives are to meet their goals of keeping women healthy, and in the case of pregnancies, making it a healthy experience for the woman and her newborn. This may require the development of a model core tobacco curriculum for all ACNM-accredited programs.