A tobacco-free service-learning pilot project

This pilot project was a collaboration between a public university school of nursing in New England and an elementary school in southeastern Connecticut, with 450 student participants. The school was selected because of the presence of poverty, health disparities, and single-parent homes in the population. Eighteen nursing students participated as part of a service-learning project. The nursing students provided tobacco-use education. Fourth and fifth grade students were taught components of the pro-health tobacco education program, the Tar Wars curriculum. Other age-appropriate strategies targeted grades pre-kindergarten through 3. One hundred percent of fourth and fifth grade students achieved the learning objectives; in addition, 415 of the students participated in a school-wide poster contest reproducing the learned content. Ninety-five percent of the nursing students earned a grade of A and viewed the project positively. Ten parents enrolled in a smoking cessation program offered on site-20% completed the program and 10% remain tobacco-free.