Can Clinical Nutrition Be Effectively Incorporated into Medical School Education?
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Authors
Miller, Lauren E.
Issue Date
2015
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
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Abstract
With an increased incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity,
physicians and health care professionals alike are searching for efficient and cost
effective ways of preventing and curing disease. One of the proposed solutions rapidly
gaining ground in the healthcare community is that of nutrition and life-style medicine.
Research suggests that by adhering to a healthy lifestyle many chronic diseases can be
prevented and reversed (Estruch et al., 2013), but further studies suggest that physicians
do not feel as though their education in medical school sufficiently prepares them to be
able to provide their patients with said nutrition information (Daley et al., 2015, Freidman
et al, 2010, Franz et al., 2015).
It is the object of this paper to evaluate a proposed tool of including nutrition in
medical schools in an efficient and feasible manner. The tool was developed by Dr.
Judith Ashley, Associate Professor and nutrition faculty member at the University of
Nevada, and involved 3rd year medical students at UCLA downloading and distributing
nutrition related handouts to their patients during their internal and family medicine
clerkship rotations. Data pertaining to the amount and type of handouts downloaded were
analyzed. It was discovered that this tool is a way of introducing nutrition into medical
schools without compromising the already crowded medical curricula. If such a tool is
included in medical schools nationwide, the inclusion of nutrition education will
drastically change the education of practicing physicians and thereby improve the health
of the nation.
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In Copyright(All Rights Reserved)