Assessment of Students’ Perception of the Nutrition Curriculum in a Canadian Undergraduate Medical Education Program

BACKGROUND: Nutrition plays an important role in diseases, and physicians need to be proficient in providing nutrition counselling to patients. There is limited information regarding nutrition education in Canadian medical schools. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate students’ perspectives about nutrition training provided in the undergraduate medical education program at Dalhousie University. METHODS: All medical students in their second, third, and fourth years of training at Dalhousie University were surveyed online with a 23-item questionnaire that included 10 nutrition competencies. RESULTS: Of 342 students, 89 (26%) completed the survey. Using a five-point Likert scale, ranging from one, indicating ‘very dissatisfied/strongly disagree’ to five, indicating ‘very satisfied/strongly agree,’ the mean overall satisfaction with nutrition curriculum was 2.9 ± 0.81. Perceived competency in nutrition assessment had the highest mean satisfaction rating (3.98 ± 0.89). There was more variance on perceived competency, with other aspects of training including basic nutrition principles (3.51 ± 0.92), disease prevention (3.14 ± 1.12), disease management (3.48 ± 1.00), role of dietitians (2.97 ± 1.05), credible nutrition sources (3.14 ± 1.09), dietary assessment (2.82 ± 1.11), lifecycle nutrition (2.67 ± 1.09), food security (2.4 ± 0.95) and malnutrition (2.74 ± 0.93). Med-4 students agreed significantly more than Med-2 students regarding confidence about their understanding of the role of dietitians. Students recommended a longitudinal nutrition program, inclusion of dietitians as educators, and provision of evidence-based resources in the curriculum. The majority (79%) agreed that more nutrition instruction is needed. Satisfaction with nutrition education has not improved since 2010, despite curricular changes. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students’ satisfaction with nutrition education remains problematic. They want more nutrition training. Ongoing assessment and student feedback is important to make changes and improvements in the nutrition curriculum.