Teaching 3rd & 4th year medical students how to cook: an innovative approach to balance lifestyle modification and medication therapy in chronic disease management

Abstract

An electronic survey was sent to all Tulane medical students to assess students’ baseline perceptions about perceived competence regarding nutrition counseling. Students were able to rate themselves as ‘totally proficient,’ ‘somewhat proficient,’ and ‘not proficient.’ Proficiency increased between 1st and 2nd year medical students (p=0.02) and between 2nd and 3rd year medical students (P=0.0001). However, no increase in proficiency was observed between 3rd and 4th year medical students (p=0.48). The Tulane University School of Medicine has launched a curriculum for its medical students that teach nutrition science in the context of preparing and cooking food. Beginning in the third and fourth year, students will have the opportunity to take disease‐based seminars (e.g. hypertension) and conduct away rotations with the Dept. of Culinary Nutrition at Johnson and Wales University. The curriculum will include lessons in food preparation using recipes that follow DASH diet guidelines. The survey described above will be given yearly to assess if students participating in this curriculum are different from classmates who did not participate. Research support: Tulane University Center for Culinary MedicineGrant Funding Source: Tulane University Center for Culinary Medicine