A Suggested Strategy to Integrate an Elective on Clinical Nutrition with Culinary Medicine

Abstract

Time allocated to nutrition education in the medical school curriculum stands in contrast to high mortality rates attributable to poor diet in patients. Counseling patients on nutrition-related diseases is a critical skill for physicians, particularly those entering primary care. The crowded medical school curriculum has made adding hours of nutrition instruction difficult. This study evaluates the attitudes of undergraduate medical students at a single institution regarding the need for and relevance of nutrition education and reports on organization of and students' responses to a short experimental elective. Student attitudes regarding nutrition in medicine and a proposed nutrition elective were surveyed. Results helped formulate a short experimental elective. A two-session experimental course was completed, after which the participants were surveyed. Students agreed or strongly agreed with statements regarding the importance of nutrition in clinical practice. Greater than 60% of students surveyed in each class were interested in the proposed elective. All participants found the elective with culinary medicine sessions at least moderately useful to their needs as future healthcare providers. The majority of participants (more than 93%) reported being likely to both take and recommend the elective should it be offered in the future. Medical students consider nutrition an essential aspect of a patient encounter, but do not feel prepared to counsel future patients on dietary changes for management and/or prevention of nutrition linked diseases. There is strong student support for creating an elective in clinical nutrition with culinary medicine sessions to address the gap in their education and improve their confidence.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01346-3.

Keywords: Clinical nutrition; Culinary medicine; Preventive health education; Undergraduate medical education.

Fig. 1

Mean response (SE) to questions regarding physician responsibilities and impacts on patient nutrition.“Asterisks” indicate questions which are worded to suggest a negative view of nutrition education, whereas all others use positive wording

Fig. 2

Average response (SE) to questions regarding 3rd and 4th year students’ perception of their nutrition education

Fig. 3

Interest in elective nutrition course and details of delivery across medical student levels

Fig. 4

Meal prepared during the culinary medicine portion of the short experimental course