An interdisciplinary effort in nutrition education in medical school.

Abstract

Objective: Provide medical nutrition training for undergraduate medical students, residents, attending physicians, and other relevant health care providers. Description: Northwestern University Medical School is a charter member of the Nutrition Academic Award (NAA) program funded in 1998 by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). A total of 21 medical schools are now funded to participate in the NAA program. Through this mechanism, Northwestern has launched an interdisciplinary nutrition education effort involving students, faculty, hospital physicians, dieticians, and other health care providers. The comprehensive nutrition curriculum is integrated within the existing medical school curriculum. Nutrition is introduced to first-year students in the Structure Function Course through interactive lectures on wellness and nutrition needs over the life cycle. In the second year, the Scientific Basis of Medicine course provides interactive lectures on nutrition for prevention and primary care, with specific focus on managing risk factors through dietary changes. During the third and fourth years, diet therapy and nutrient needs during critical care are presented during the clinical clerkship rotations. Both lectures and participatory case studies are used. In addition, through separate funding, third-year medical students in the obstetrics—gynecology clerkship participate in diet-counseling sessions for underserved, uninsured, pregnant patients, supervised by specially trained registered dietitians. This provides practical experience for the students in a supervised setting as well as providing healthy pregnant patients with personalized nutrition counseling they would otherwise not receive. Northwestern has developed a detailed evaluation process by assessing nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among the students over their four years in medical school. A unique nutrition-attitude questionnaire has been developed and validated among students and residents.1 In addition, a special “Wellness Newsletter” featuring nutrition topics, controversial diets, and practical advice has been developed by medical students for student use, with the NAA program faculty serving as the editorial board. This mechanism not only has fostered the study of evidence-based nutrition recommendations and existing national nutrition policies but also has taught the students about critical reading of the medical literature, interpreting study designs, and statistical methods, as well as evaluating the role of diet in prevention and treatment of disease. Discussion: Nutrition education is often neglected in medical school or is presented in a didactic format with little or no opportunity for students to acquire nutrition-counseling skills. Through a multidisciplinary effort, the faculty and medical staff at Northwestern have joined together to provide both the scientific basis of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease and opportunities for practical application of these principles through state-of-the-art nutritional assessment and treatment approaches.