Prevention of Smoking in Scholarship Students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Artemisa

Introduction: Young people expose dissimilar reasons as justification for tobacco consumption. The presence of smoking in university students studying medicine and nursing becomes a challenge for institutional authorities, in their purpose of solving the health problem. Objective: to design an action plan for the prevention of smoking in scholarship students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Artemisa. Methods: a descriptive, prospective longitudinal study was developed with 211 smoking scholarship students from the aforementioned entity in the period from January 20 to March 25, 2020. Procedures were used such as: documentary review, observation, survey, focus group, brainstorming, and cause and effect diagram. Results: 22 causes were identified that favored the increase in smoking, six correspond to strategic and organizational gaps; seven are related to teachers; five correspond to the methodological teaching process and four are linked to educational work. Likewise, an action plan focused on seven objectives, 18 activities and four indicators was developed to evaluate the implementation process. Conclusions: The smoking prevention strategy applied to smoking scholarship students at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Artemisa does not ensure the reduction of this toxic habit, which is potentially vulnerable with the proposed action plan.