Recent medical graduates’ attitudes towards nutrition education and its role in medical practice

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate recent Dalhousie Medical School graduates’ perceptions of nutrition in three domains: attitudes towards its use in medical practice generally, learned body of knowledge in medical school and residency, and satisfaction with how undergraduate and postgraduate medical education aligned their attitudes and knowledge of nutrition in medicine. Graduates of Dalhousie University’s undergraduate medical program from 2013 to 2018 were contacted to complete an internet-based questionnaire of 13 five-point Likert scale questions about attitudes, knowledge, and satisfaction with nutrition education in their undergraduate medical studies and medical practice. Responses ranged from one, “strongly disagree” to five, “strongly agree”. Most respondents (90.2%) agreed that ‘nutrition counseling can make a positive difference to patient outcomes’ and 80.5% agreed that ‘physicians can influence patient behavior related to nutrition’. However, fewer (61.0%) agreed that ‘physicians play a key role in improving patients’ nutritional habits.’ Even fewer participants agreed that nutritional assessment (34.1%) and nutritional counselling (41.5%) should be a routine part of care, regardless of specialty. The mean (standard deviation) overall score of participants with regards to their attitudes about nutrition assessment, counselling, and role in patient health, was 3.60 (0.633). Scores ranged from 1 to 5 with higher score indicating morepositive attitude. Mean overall knowledge and satisfaction scores were 3.76 (0.702) and 2.70 (0.898), respectively. There is a lack of consensus regarding the role of physicians in delivering nutrition care to patients, despite its perceived importance to patient health, requiring further exploration.