Implementation of an Interprofessional Nutrition Workshop to Integrate Nutrition Education into a Preclinical Medical School Curriculum

• Published in: Journal of the American College of Nutrition Vol. 40; no. 2; p. 111
• Main Authors: Cavuoto Petrizzo, Marie, Block, Lauren, Olvet, Doreen M, Sheridan, Eva M, Dougherty, Rebecca, Whitson, Matthew, John, Janice T, Barilla-LaBarca, Maria-Louise, DiFiglia-Peck, Stephanie, Fornari, Alice
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 17.02.2021
• Subjects: Nutrition; interprofessional; medical education; preclinical curriculum
• ISSN: 1541-1087
• DOI: 10.1080/07315724.2020.1737985

The patient-physician encounter provides an ideal opportunity to assess a patient's dietary history and its impact on total health. However, nutrition assessments and counseling in physician-patient encounters is often lacking. Insufficient nutrition education during medical school may lead to insecurity in assessing and counseling patients. Physicians and registered dietitians (RD) co-developed and co-facilitated a nutrition workshop for first-year medical students. Goals included increasing recognition of nutrition's impact on health and promoting student confidence and skills when attaining a nutrition history, assessing risk factors, and advising. Seventy percent of students attested to having "sufficient" knowledge to counsel a patient on nutrition after the session compared to 38% before ( = -4.46,  < 0.001). Sixty eight percent felt comfortable completing a nutritional assessment after the session compared to 35% before ( = -4.30,  < 0.001). Sixty-three percent felt confident in advising patients about nutrition after the session compared to 32% before ( = -4.20,  < 0.001). Students also significantly outperformed a control cohort on a nutrition-related component of an Objective Standardized Clinical Examination. Clinical nutrition education can be successfully integrated into the medical school curriculum as early as the first year. Interprofessional collaboration with RDs provided evidence-based content and authentic clinical experience in both the development of the workshop and in facilitating student discussion.