Blackmores Institute

Published in the journal, Nutrients, the Australian and New Zealand collaborative research aimed to identify medical students’ attitudes towards the role of nutrition in health, nutrition knowledge, and perceptions of nutrition education, in postgraduate (Australia) and undergraduate (New Zealand) programs in order to identify gaps in nutrition knowledge and skills to better inform future education.
 
 “Second-year graduate and third-year undergraduate students participated in semi-structured focus groups and interviews. A general inductive approach was used to investigate students’ attitudes toward the role of nutrition in health; nutrition knowledge based on nutrition-specific competencies and; perceived adequacy of nutrition education received,” the authors explained.
 
 “Overall, participants agreed that doctors have a role in providing nutrition care to patients, including prevention and treatment of lifestyle-related disease and that doctors, especially general practitioners were best placed to provide nutrition care.”
 
 The study noted, however, that many participants identified limits to their scope of practice and considered the primary role of doctors to be complementary to that of nutritionists/dietitians, as participants believed they were able to more personalised and ongoing nutrition care.
 
 “The results overall support the existing literature on the lack of nutrition education in medical programs. This is not related to students’ interest in nutrition and, in fact, participants felt that doctors, particularly GPs, were well-placed to provide nutrition care and have an important role in providing this care.
 
 “But, most participants were not confident in skill-based nutrition competencies within the Nutrition Competency Framework (NCF).
 
 All participants agreed that doctors have a role in providing basic nutrition care to patients yet, based on their current nutrition education, the majority of participants did not feel prepared to provide dietary advice. Participants identified limitations and suggestions to improve their nutrition education,” the researchers said.
 
 Participants reported limitations to their current nutrition education, including the poor application of nutrition science to clinical contexts and limited engagement with other health professionals. Students suggested increasing nutrition content across organ-based modules to emphasise the relevance of nutrition in total patient care and to avoid conflict in an already crowded curriculum. 
 
 The study found that most postgraduate participants identified limited exposure to other clinicians, including nutrition experts, as a barrier to providing nutrition care and collectively, both participant groups recommended more inter-professional approaches to nutrition education to consolidate learning. 
 
 “Specifically, participants suggested that increased engagement with dietitians in small group activities would be beneficial, to demonstrate the application of nutrition care and to foster nutrition-related skills development.
 
 Mandating nutrition content through competency frameworks, including assessment, is crucial, to provide opportunities to scaffold learning throughout medical education to maximise the acquisition of nutrition knowledge and skills. 
 
 “A more interprofessional approach to nutrition education, whereby nutrition professionals model the delivery of nutrition care, is suggested. Competency frameworks, such as the NCF, may be utilised with vertical and horizontal integration of nutrition into existing medical curricula. It would seem timely to further promote nutrition care with further investigation required to establish the best practices to benefit future medical nutrition education in Australia and New Zealand,” the authors concluded.
 
 
 Source: 
 Nutrients. 2020. DOI:<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/3/598">10.3390/nu12030598</a>

Medical students believe that doctors are well-placed to provide patient nutrition care, but insufficient nutritional education and poor translation of knowledge into clinical contexts leads to limited confidence to deliver this care, a new study has revealed.

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