Nutrition training in residency and fellowship programme: time for a change

Abstract

Background: Despite several measures, the nutrition education during undergraduate and postgraduate training has been identified to be suboptimal. The objective of this study was to assess the nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practice of residents, fellows and teaching faculties, following a reformation in the training curriculum, in a tertiary teaching hospital. Method: We conducted an anonymous survey involving residents, fellows and teaching faculties in medical and surgical speciality. We assessed four domains: (a) recognition, (b) knowledge, (c) application of basic principles of nutritional and (d) attitude towards clinical nutrition during residency and fellowship training. Each domain had five multiple choice questions and the attitude section was assessed using a five-point Likert scale. Result: We distributed the survey to 305 doctors: 265 completed the first three domains and 259 completed all the domains. The overall mean ± SD score between residents (6.5 ± 1.9), fellows (6.8 ± 1.8) and teaching faculties (6.5 ± 2.2) was similar. All scored similarly in the recognition, knowledge and application domain of the questionnaire. When subcategorised, the gastroenterology sub-speciality scored significantly higher than the rest (8.1 ± 2.2 vs. 6.4 ± 1.9, p = 0.001). Sixty-three per cent and 44% of the responders felt there was lack of adequate focus on clinical nutrition training in residency and during daily ward round, respectively. Only 10% of responders felt confident in providing nutritional counselling and treatment for malnourished patients. Conclusion: Our study shows the current nutritional education during residency and fellowship training is still inadequate and falls short in achieving the recommended goals.