Objective: To report the impact of a tobacco intervention in a pediatric residency program.
Design: Residents and faculty took pretests and posttests and follow-up surveys 6 months later.
Setting: An urban, university-affiliated, county medical center.
Intervention: An educational program of three presentations, written materials, and a bulletin board.
Results: Significant improvement in counseling and confidence in counseling. Perceptions of barriers to counseling, specifically expertise, time limitation, and doubts regarding counseling effectiveness diminished. Residents changed less than faculty in particular areas. There were no differences between the posttests and the follow-up survey 6 months later.
Conclusions: Pediatric health professionals in an academic setting, given an educational program, will change their behaviors and attitudes about their role in counseling patients about tobacco use.