A Regional Campus Approach to Culinary Medicine for Interprofessional Students

Abstract

Purpose
 The purpose of this report is to describe and discuss an innovative culinary medicine interprofessional student educational project through collaboration with community partners. 
 
 Method
 After adapting the culinary medicine program to meet interprofessional education requirements, students from interprofessional graduate healthcare programs on a regional medical campus participated in a culinary medicine active learning experience utilizing the Goldring© curriculum. For this project, students completed assigned readings prior to the hands-on culinary experience which utilized a patient case scenario and an educational debrief. Anonymous post-survey quantitative and qualitative data was collected to determine the students’ opinions of the learning experience and the application of the information learned for patient care.
 
 Results
 Thirty-three students from medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, nursing, radiologic imaging science, and genetic counseling participated. The project consisted of three separate events, entailing the same learning experience. The students reported the learning experience to be highly valuable. Qualitative data analysis revealed three general themes: 1) the novelty of the information learned, 2) the relevance of the information for patients from the perspective of all disciplines represented in the learning experience, and 3) the value of teamwork. 
 
 Conclusions
 Collaboration with a local community culinary arts school provided a unique and innovative learning opportunity for regional campus healthcare students. The focus of the culinary medicine learning experience to include interprofessional students created a rich learning environment allowing students to learn from, with, and about other healthcare disciplines in addition to practical application of culinary medicine. The culinary medicine program’s combination of didactic and culinary skills training was well received by students. Students had a positive response to the curriculum and experience stating that they learned information that they were excited to implement with their patients. To our knowledge UAMS Northwest Regional Campus is the first to implement culinary medicine curriculum with IPE requirements, and it is the first regional medical campus to implement the Goldring© curriculum.