Virtual Seminars for Medical Nutrition Education

Abstract

Medical nutrition educators continue to struggle with the development and implementation of nutrition curriculum into medical school and residency curricula. Experiments in use of multimedia and distance learning are important to identify ways to deliver nutrition information and skills to medical students. East Carolina University School of Medicine conducted a Virtual Seminar for first year medical students. The Virtual Seminar provided an opportunity for students to assess their skills in assessing a patient's diet for cardiovascular health and counseling a patient on dietary change. This activity was a follow-up activity to a lecture on nutrition and heart disease and counseling of a standardized patient with the Step One diet. Faculty recognized as experts in doctor-patient relationships interacted with the students in the Virtual Seminar. Students were required to log into a virtual seminar at www.preventivenutrition.com and answer questions posed by a faculty expert, including How did your skills assist you in improving patient adherence? What worked well for you? What didn't work and where do you think you need to focus on developing additional skills? What dilemmas do you face in encouraging patients to make dietary changes? Students were asked to complete an on-line evaluation at the end of the seminar. The case study of this Virtual Seminar will be presented. The description will include the technical requirements, costs, transcript of the comments of the 72 participants and experts, and summary of the post-seminar evaluation. The potential for this type of distance education in medical education will be described.