Prevention-focused health care training: A model for educating medical professionals in effective nutrition counseling (UNC Nutrition in Medicine)

Introduction Dietary and related lifestyle factors are critical enabling conditions for the most common chronic illnesses and causes of death in the U.S. Patients and the general public depend on health care professionals to give them correct and effective guidance for better health and disease treatment. Time is at a premium in already overburdened curricula for the necessary training and qualified nutrition educators are often not sufficiently available. Online instruction can potentially fill capacity gaps and target underused student time outside classroom hours. Approach The Nutrition in Medicine on-line training program was developed to address these challenges with up-to-date comprehensive learning modules designed for medical students, residents, and practicing providers to better understand and communicate more effectively with patients to encourage healthier nutritional choices. Results The Nutrition in Medicine materials now reach learners in more than half of all U.S. medical schools as well as in medical residency and other medical training programs. In our recent published survey, U.S. medical schools using the materials provided nearly twice as many hours of required nutrition education as non-participating schools. Anonymous feedback indicates that most students (over 75% of more than 9000 learners) would recommend the materials for others. Discussion While long term affect of this curriculum is not yet known, the short term effect of this strategy is to provide learners with information that increases their comfort and understanding of nutrition. The desired effect is that more providers with better communication strategies could influence patient behaviors and better nutritional choices.