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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.

SUBMITTER: Leggett LK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8446146 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:(1) Background: The Culinary Medicine elective at the German medical schools of the universities of Göttingen, Giessen, and Brandenburg is a teaching kitchen-based elective aimed at training medical students on how to improve patient counselling on nutrition and lifestyle medicine topics. This curriculum was either delivered virtually (2021) or in-person (2022/2023). Changes in teaching effectiveness were evaluated. (2) Methods: The elective included seven modules in the teaching kitchen for 3 h each. It consisted of a short introduction and a hands-on interactive cooking part illustrating important dietary principles in different disease groups. The elective was conducted virtually in 2021 in a fully interactive setup using videoconference tools. Students in this cohort attended from their private kitchens whereas students in the in-person cohort (2022/2023) attended the same classes in the teaching kitchen. Standardized comparative self-assessment questionnaires on counselling competencies, nutrition knowledge, eating habits, and mental well-being (WHO-5) before and after the elective were used to determine teaching effectiveness. Paired and unpaired t-tests were performed to evaluate results. (3) Results: A total of 70 students (mean semester 6.3) were included in the virtual cohort, and 80 students (mean semester 6.3) were in the in-person cohort. In both, counselling competencies on 25 nutrition and lifestyle medicine topics increased significantly. Significant changes also occurred in most nutrition knowledge categories. Subjective well-being as well as personal attitudes towards nutrition counselling in medical practice improved significantly during the elective. Healthy eating habits improved in both groups as students ate significantly less unfavourable foods. There were no significant differences between the two groups apart from minor differences in nutrition knowledge. (4) Conclusions: The elective in Culinary Medicine improved students counselling competencies, nutrition knowledge, attitudes, well-being, and eating habits with no relevant difference between virtual and in-person teaching.

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

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