Incorporating Nutrition into the Curriculum of a Midwestern Medical School

Abstract

Nutrition has been identified as an area of need in medical school education by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (ASCN), the American Medical Student Association, and the National Research Academy of Sciences.1-3 In fact, the American Medical Association (AMA) made specific recommendations for increasing the development of medical nutrition education curricula in the Medical Society Recommendations on Nutrition Education for Medical Schools.4 Along with other evidence, the report recognized that the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Medical School Graduation Questionnaire data show that almost 2 of 3 fourth-year medical students believe that the time devoted to nutrition in medical school has been inadequate. The purpose of this project was to expand and strengthen nutrition in the curriculum of a Midwest university medical school. The specific objectives of this project were to integrate nutr ition into the medical curriculum by developing nutritionbased resource sessions and minicases and to increase the quantity of nutrition education resources. In the late 1990s, the 4-year undergraduate medical school curriculum of this Midwest university was redesigned (Table 1), creating Curriculum 2000.5 Curriculum 2000 provided an overall focus on clinical case–based, studentdirected learning in a small-group setting through problem-based learning. Prior to Curriculum 2000, nutrition education was not part of the curriculum; thus, this team was charged with expanding the basic sciences to include nutrition.This challenge, along with a grant received from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, led to an initiative to incorporate nutrition into Curriculum 2000. Initially, the research team (including a nutritionist, a physiologist, a biochemist, an anatomist, and clinicians) reviewed the curriculum to determine current material delivered to students and placement of nutrition education to minimize disruption of the existing curriculum structure. Members of the research team also participated in the National Board of Medical Examiners Faculty Item Review Program, allowing them to compare the nutritionbased content of the examination with the nutrition content placed in the curriculum. Based on the gaps identified and recommendations from the AMA,ASCN, and AAMC, the following initiatives were taken.1-5