scholarly journals A Suggested Strategy to Integrate an Elective on Clinical Nutrition with Culinary Medicine

Author(s):  
Lindsey K. Leggett ◽  
Kareem Ahmed ◽  
Cheryl Vanier ◽  
Amina Sadik

AbstractTime allocated to nutrition education in the medical school curriculum stands in contrast to high mortality rates attributable to poor diet in patients. Counseling patients on nutrition-related diseases is a critical skill for physicians, particularly those entering primary care. The crowded medical school curriculum has made adding hours of nutrition instruction difficult. This study evaluates the attitudes of undergraduate medical students at a single institution regarding the need for and relevance of nutrition education and reports on organization of and students’ responses to a short experimental elective. Student attitudes regarding nutrition in medicine and a proposed nutrition elective were surveyed. Results helped formulate a short experimental elective. A two-session experimental course was completed, after which the participants were surveyed. Students agreed or strongly agreed with statements regarding the importance of nutrition in clinical practice. Greater than 60% of students surveyed in each class were interested in the proposed elective. All participants found the elective with culinary medicine sessions at least moderately useful to their needs as future healthcare providers. The majority of participants (more than 93%) reported being likely to both take and recommend the elective should it be offered in the future. Medical students consider nutrition an essential aspect of a patient encounter, but do not feel prepared to counsel future patients on dietary changes for management and/or prevention of nutrition linked diseases. There is strong student support for creating an elective in clinical nutrition with culinary medicine sessions to address the gap in their education and improve their confidence.

2021 ◽  
pp. 155982762110217
Author(s):  
Christopher R. D’Adamo ◽  
Kayli Workman ◽  
Christine Barnabic ◽  
Norman Retener ◽  
Bernadette Siaton ◽  
...  

Background: Elective culinary medicine education has become popular to help fill important gaps in physician nutrition training. The implementation and outcomes among the inaugural cohort of medical students who received culinary medicine training as a required component of medical school curriculum at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are described. Methods: Following a series of elective pilot sessions, culinary medicine training was provided to all first-year medical students in the 2019-2020 academic year. The 3-hour training included evidence-based nutrition lecture, cooking simple recipes, and group discussion of the application to personal and patient care. Pre-/postsession questionnaires assessed nutrition knowledge, skills, and attitudes as well as nutritional counseling confidence. Paired t-tests estimated mean differences in outcomes pre- and posttraining. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Overall, 119 of 125 (95.2%) students provided pre- and posttraining outcomes data. All nutritional and patient counseling outcomes improved ( P < .05). Themes of being better prepared to address healthy eating barriers in patient care and personal ability to make healthy dietary changes were noted in qualitative analysis. Conclusion: One session of culinary medicine training in core medical student curriculum was feasible and improved medical student nutrition knowledge, skills, and attitudes and confidence in patient nutrition counseling.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155982762098867
Author(s):  
Kara F. Morton ◽  
Diana C. Pantalos ◽  
Craig Ziegler ◽  
Pradip D. Patel

Purpose. To evaluate medical students’ and family medicine residents’ perceptions of their current degree of nutrition training in general and regarding a whole-foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet. Methods. An original survey instrument was administered to medical students and family medicine residents. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to evaluate perceptions of nutrition education in medical training, a WFPB diet, and ideas for nutrition-focused curricular reform. Results. Of the 668 trainees surveyed, 200 responded (response rate = 30%). Of these, 22% agreed that they received sufficient nutrition education in medical school and 41% agreed that a WFPB diet should be a focus. Respondents with personal experiences with a plant-based diet were more willing to recommend it to future patients. Common ideas for curricular reform were instruction on a WFPB diet along with other healthy dietary patterns, patient counseling, a dedicated nutrition course, and electives. Conclusions. Nutrition education in US medical training needs improvement to address the growing burden of obesity-related chronic disease. Proper nutrition and lifestyle modification should therefore play a larger role in the education of future physicians. A focus on plant-predominant diets, such as the WFPB diet, may be an acceptable and effective addition to current medical school curriculum, and deserves further study.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah M. Gramlich ◽  
Dana Lee Olstad ◽  
Roseanne Nasser ◽  
Laki Goonewardene ◽  
Maitreyi Raman ◽  
...  

Patients routinely seek physicians’ guidance about diet and the relation between nutrition and the prevention and treatment of disease. However, the adequacy of nutrition instruction in undergraduate medical education is questionable. The purpose of this study was to investigate Canadian medical students’ perceptions of and satisfaction with their education in nutrition. At 9 universities across Canada, a 23-item survey questionnaire was distributed in English and French to undergraduate medical students after at least 8 months of medical school. Overall, 9 of 17 universities participated in the survey, and 933 of the 3267 medical students approached completed the survey (response rate, 28.6%). Mean satisfaction with nutrition instruction received during medical school was 4.7 (±0.06) on a scale of 1–10, where 1 is very dissatisfied and 10 is very satisfied, and there were significant differences among schools (p < 0.0001). Students were comfortable in their ability to counsel patients regarding basic nutrition concepts and the role of nutrition in prevention of disease, but were much less comfortable discussing the role of nutrition in the treatment of disease and nutrient requirements across the lifecycle, and in identifying credible sources of nutrition information. Of the 933 respondents, 87.2% believe that their undergraduate program should dedicate more time to nutrition education. The amount of nutrition instruction correlated with student satisfaction (p < 0.0001), but varied among schools. A significant number of students are dissatisfied with the nutrition education they receive and their ability to provide relevant and appropriate nutrition counselling. This study paves the way for further discussions and development of strategies to improve nutrition education in medical schools in Canada.


2017 ◽  
Vol 130 (6) ◽  
pp. 623-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Baute ◽  
Amelia D. Carr ◽  
Jacob N. Blackwell ◽  
Elizabeth R. Carstensen ◽  
Poorvi Chhabra ◽  
...  

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
June C. Penney

A medical school curriculum in “Death and Dying” evolved through a number of catalysts. A study demonstrated medical students’ reactions to human dissection and their responses led to a design for an “Orientation to Human Dissection.” These events, other simultaneous catalysts, and the resulting curriculum in Death and Dying are described. Evaluation of the course, types of elective studies, and a memorial service are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
K S Lee ◽  
J J Y Zhang ◽  
A Alamri ◽  
A Chari

Abstract Introduction Worldwide, there is no specific medical school curriculum in neurosurgery despite a high burden of neurosurgical disease that is often assessed, investigated and managed by generalists. This scoping review was carried out to map available evidence pertaining to the provision of neurosurgery education in the medical school curriculum across the world. Method This review was conducted in accordance to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews. Results Ten studies were included. Six were from the United Kingdom, two from the United States, and one each from Canada and Ireland. Two studies evaluated perceptions of both medical students and practicing clinicians, five studies evaluated the perceptions of medical students and three studies reported perceptions of clinicians only. Three main themes were identified. Neurosurgery was perceived as an important part of the general medical student curriculum. Exposure to neurosurgery teaching was varied but when received, deemed useful and students were keen to receive more. Interest in a neurosurgical career amongst medical students was high. Conclusions There is a lack of a specialty-specific medical school curriculum and variability of medical students’ exposure to neurosurgery teaching exists. Our findings highlight the need to systematically assess specialty-specific teaching and determine adequacy.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document