Nutrition competencies for undergraduate medical education: Results of an international interdisciplinary consensus

Abstract

Background The gap between the nutrition education provided to medical students and the nutrition competencies and attitudes needed for physicians to provide adequate nutrition care is a global concern. There is no universally accepted benchmark on nutrition competencies for doctors. The objective of this study was to establish, by expert consensus, the objectives of undergraduate nutrition medial education, the nutrition core competencies, and strategies for curriculum development in medical nutrition education. Methods We administered a Delphi survey to systematically gather the opinion of a panel of Latin American experts in nutrition. The survey questionnaire was constructed considering scientific literature by using a 5‐point Likert scale. Consensus was defined as >70% agreement on the importance of an item (Likert scale 4 and 5). Results A four‐round Delphi survey was conducted for this research. In the second, third, and fourth rounds, we validated a total of 130 competencies by consensus, which were distributed into four different thematic areas: (1) basic nutrition concepts, (2) public nutrition and nutrition prevention throughout the life cycle, (3) nutrition status and disease, and (4) nutrition care process. Conclusion The curricula for general physician education in medical school must include health promotion, prevention, and treatment of diseases related to nutrition. This goal can be reached by integrating ≤130 competencies into four different fundamental areas.

Nutrition knowledge and attitude of Babcock University medical and nursing students and Inter-professional collaboration with Dietitians in patient care

“…Slightly above half said there was insufficient nutrition training for doctors in Nigeria. This was similar to the findings of Cardenas et al (21) on Nutrition in medical education in Latin America, where the medical students also had positive attitudes toward nutrition but insufficient nutrition training for doctors. Almost half of the respondents reported that physicians have little impact on the patient's ability to lose weight, for patients who needed weight loss and some of the students could not recall the formula for calculating BMI.…”

Hungry for more: Australian medical students’ competence, attitudes and preferences towards nutrition education

“…Firstly, we call upon Medical Deans’ Associations to make nutrition education compulsory in medical training so as to equip medical professionals to adequately respond to the global burden of NCDs. We recommend that medical curricula in Australia and globally adopt a Nutrition Competency Framework spanning the prevention and treatment of diseases relating to nutrition, in line with benchmarks developed by recent international interdisciplinary consensus [ 23 ]. Finally, we call upon researchers and universities to develop, pilot and assess innovative nutrition initiatives in medical curriculums, such as ‘culinary medicine’ programs.…”

Educación en nutrición clínica en Colombia. Estado actual y el papel de la educación en línea

“…En un estudio reciente a nivel de América Latina, se realizó una encuesta en 17 países que incluyó 22 directores de facultades de medicina, más o menos una universidad por país, el cual concluyó. Este mostró que se dedicaban 47 horas al estudio de la nutrición (38). Para tener un contexto, según la Asociación Colombiana de Facultades de Medicina (ASCOFAME), durante 2016 en Colombia, existían 58 facultades de medicina (39), por esta razón, el número de horas reportado en el estudio de América Latina puede ser mucho menor, debido a que es posible, que quienes contestaron la encuesta, podrían tener un interés particular en nutrición.…”