Impact of an Expansion of a Clinical Nutrition Curriculum on Pre-Clerkship Medical Students' Perception of Their Knowledge and Skills Related to Performing a Nutritional Assessment.

Trey Keel,Rebecca Dougherty,Doreen M Olvet,Eva M Sheridan,Marie Cavuoto Petrizzo,Janice T John

doi:10.3390/nu13114081

Trey Keel, Rebecca Dougherty + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13114081

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Abstract

Learning how to provide nutritional counseling to patients should start early in undergraduate medical education to improve the knowledge, comfort, and confidence of physicians. Two nutrition workshops were developed for first-year medical students. The first workshop, co-led by physicians and registered dieticians, focused on obtaining nutrition assessments. The second workshop focused on the appropriate dietary counseling of patients with chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk. We surveyed students before workshop 1, after workshop 1, and after workshop 2 to assess their perceptions of the value of physician nutrition knowledge and counseling skills as well as their own comfort in the area of nutritional knowledge, assessment, and counseling. We found a significant improvement in their self-assessed level of knowledge regarding counseling patients, in their comfort in completing a nutritional assessment, and in their confidence in advising a patient about nutrition by the end of the first workshop. By the time of the second workshop five months later, students continued to report a high level of knowledge, comfort, and confidence. The implementation of clinical nutrition workshops with a focus on assessment, management, and counseling was found to be effective in increasing student’s self-assessed level of knowledge as well as their confidence and comfort in advising patients on nutrition. Our findings further support the previous assertion that clinical nutrition education can be successfully integrated into the pre-clerkship medical school curriculum.

Highlights

Despite the burden that obesity places on US public health and US national medical expenditures, over 90% of physicians do not council their patients about weight loss [1,2].There are many reasons for this, including insecurity in nutrition counseling and gaps in nutrition knowledge [2,3]
Two nutrition workshops were provided as mandatory curricular sessions for the entire cohort of 102 students matriculated in their first year of medical school (MS1) at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell (ZSOM) in the
There was no significant change in student perception regarding the knowledge and skills physicians should possess about nutrition counseling between the pre- and post-workshop timepoints

Summary

Introduction

Despite the burden that obesity places on US public health and US national medical expenditures, over 90% of physicians do not council their patients about weight loss [1,2].There are many reasons for this, including insecurity in nutrition counseling and gaps in nutrition knowledge [2,3]. The need for clinical nutrition education is only increasing and educational reform is required to tackle this growing epidemic. Learning how to counsel patients on nutrition and obesity management should start as early as in undergraduate medical education (UME). Both the time and resources allotted in UME are insufficient to provide medical students with adequate training in the area of clinical nutrition education [7,8,9]. The nutrition education that is currently provided is largely focused on basic science and lectures, and learners report rarely having the opportunity to practice or observe physicians demonstrating best practices in nutrition counseling in a clinical setting [8,9]. Medical students do not feel adequately prepared and lack the confidence to incorporate nutrition counseling into their practice [8]

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Discussion

Conclusion