Development and implementation of a nutrition education program for medical students: A new challenge

Context: Teaching nutrition to medical students is constrained by limitations in curricular time and competition with other topics. Objectives: To identify time slots and teaching methods for incorporating nutrition into the medical school curriculum, determine students' nutritional knowledge following the program, and their perception of the effectiveness of the program. Methods: A nutritional workshop was added to the clinical experience weeks of second-year medical students. The first class included 66 students and the second class included 56 students. In order to fully acquaint the students with nutrition, four topics were included: nutritional policy, dietary assessment, nutritional recommendations, and obesity. Students were encouraged to actively participate in the program which included dietary intake interviews, debates regarding nutritional treatments, and actual practice in class. The main outcome measures were nutritional knowledge and evaluation of the program by the students. Findings: Over 90% of the students answered the knowledge questions correctly. The effectiveness of the training was graded (on a scale of 1-7) between 3.7-5.4 in the first year and 3.4-5.7 in the second year. Conclusions: The ten-hour nutritional workshops within the clinical weeks were well-received by second-year medical students. Using cases relevant to the students' age seems to enhance their interest in the program.