Educational needs in health promotion in students of the Metropolitan University of Ecuador

Foundation: Students and professionals in the health sector must have sufficient preparation in the area of health promotion, which should start from undergraduate and extend according to the specific needs in working life. Objective: to identify educational needs in health promotion issues in university students. Methods: descriptive study, which explored educational needs of a group of students ( 20 students: 15 Nursing and 5 Optometry) of the Metropolitan University of Ecuador. A survey was applied to all of them to obtain information on the main learning difficulties about health promotion issues. As a previous step, the blended learning tool was introduced using the Moodle platform. Results: 90% of surveyed were unaware of the basic documents of Primary Health Care; 70% conferred little value on community work; and 40% qualified to regulate their communication with users. On the blended learning tool, 85% of the students expressed that they did not know it, however, 99% showed willingness to know and use it. Conclusion: there was a poor knowledge of essential aspects to develop health promotion actions, as well as limited access to tools that can improve this situation, such as blended learning.