Medical students’ perceptions of nutrition education in Canadian universities

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah M. Gramlich ◽  
Dana Lee Olstad ◽  
Roseanne Nasser ◽  
Laki Goonewardene ◽  
Maitreyi Raman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Nutrient Requirements ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Survey Response Rate ◽  
Nutrition Instruction

Patients routinely seek physicians’ guidance about diet and the relation between nutrition and the prevention and treatment of disease. However, the adequacy of nutrition instruction in undergraduate medical education is questionable. The purpose of this study was to investigate Canadian medical students’ perceptions of and satisfaction with their education in nutrition. At 9 universities across Canada, a 23-item survey questionnaire was distributed in English and French to undergraduate medical students after at least 8 months of medical school. Overall, 9 of 17 universities participated in the survey, and 933 of the 3267 medical students approached completed the survey (response rate, 28.6%). Mean satisfaction with nutrition instruction received during medical school was 4.7 (±0.06) on a scale of 1–10, where 1 is very dissatisfied and 10 is very satisfied, and there were significant differences among schools (p < 0.0001). Students were comfortable in their ability to counsel patients regarding basic nutrition concepts and the role of nutrition in prevention of disease, but were much less comfortable discussing the role of nutrition in the treatment of disease and nutrient requirements across the lifecycle, and in identifying credible sources of nutrition information. Of the 933 respondents, 87.2% believe that their undergraduate program should dedicate more time to nutrition education. The amount of nutrition instruction correlated with student satisfaction (p < 0.0001), but varied among schools. A significant number of students are dissatisfied with the nutrition education they receive and their ability to provide relevant and appropriate nutrition counselling. This study paves the way for further discussions and development of strategies to improve nutrition education in medical schools in Canada.

scholarly journals A Suggested Strategy to Integrate an Elective on Clinical Nutrition with Culinary Medicine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey K. Leggett ◽  
Kareem Ahmed ◽  
Cheryl Vanier ◽  
Amina Sadik
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Medical School Curriculum ◽  
Clinical Nutrition ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Culinary Medicine

AbstractTime allocated to nutrition education in the medical school curriculum stands in contrast to high mortality rates attributable to poor diet in patients. Counseling patients on nutrition-related diseases is a critical skill for physicians, particularly those entering primary care. The crowded medical school curriculum has made adding hours of nutrition instruction difficult. This study evaluates the attitudes of undergraduate medical students at a single institution regarding the need for and relevance of nutrition education and reports on organization of and students’ responses to a short experimental elective. Student attitudes regarding nutrition in medicine and a proposed nutrition elective were surveyed. Results helped formulate a short experimental elective. A two-session experimental course was completed, after which the participants were surveyed. Students agreed or strongly agreed with statements regarding the importance of nutrition in clinical practice. Greater than 60% of students surveyed in each class were interested in the proposed elective. All participants found the elective with culinary medicine sessions at least moderately useful to their needs as future healthcare providers. The majority of participants (more than 93%) reported being likely to both take and recommend the elective should it be offered in the future. Medical students consider nutrition an essential aspect of a patient encounter, but do not feel prepared to counsel future patients on dietary changes for management and/or prevention of nutrition linked diseases. There is strong student support for creating an elective in clinical nutrition with culinary medicine sessions to address the gap in their education and improve their confidence.

Quantifying empathy levels among UK undergraduate medical students: an online survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. bjgp20X711293
Author(s):  
Sarah Garnett ◽  
Hajira Dambha-Miller ◽  
Beth Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Cross Sectional

BackgroundEmpathy is a key health care concept and refers to care that incorporates understanding of patient perspective’s, shared decision making, and consideration of the broader context in which illness is experience. Evidence suggests experiences of doctor empathy correlate with improved health outcomes and patient satisfaction. It has also been linked to job satisfaction, and mental wellbeing for doctors. To date, there is a paucity of evidence on empathy levels among medical students. This is critical to understand given that it is a key point at which perceptions and practices of empathy in the longer term might be formed.AimTo quantify the level of empathy among UK undergraduate medical studentsMethodAn anonymised cross-sectional online survey was distributed to medical students across three universities. The previously validated Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used to quantify empathy. The survey also collected information on age, sex, ethnicity, year of medical school training and included a free-text box for ‘any other comments’.ResultsData analysis is currently underway with high response rates. Mean empathy scores by age, sex, year of study and ethnic group are presented. A correlation analysis will examine associations between age and year of study, and mean empathy sores.ConclusionThese data will help to provide a better understanding of empathy levels to inform the provision of future empathy training and medical school curriculum design. Given previous evidence linking experiences of empathy to better health outcomes, the findings may also be significant to future patient care

scholarly journals Perceived psychological stress among undergraduate medical students: Role of academic factors

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranadip Chowdhury ◽  
Abhijit Mukherjee ◽  
Kaushik Mitra ◽  
Somnath Naskar ◽  
PrasantaRay Karmakar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Academic Factors

scholarly journals Stigma towards psychiatry: correlating personal experience with existing literature

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S126-S127
Author(s):  
Jack Blake ◽  
George El-Nimr
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Clinical Placement ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Prospective Students ◽  
Clinical Placements ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
University Life

AimsStigma towards psychiatry feels rife within medical school and this extends from university life into clinical placements. Mental health remains an unattractive area of medicine and is frequently regarded as subpar by other specialists. Against existing literature, this study compares the authors first hand experiences over the last five years within medical school to evaluate how representative their experiences of stigma in psychiatry are for the wider community and published literature. The study aims to inform the wider discussion on this topic and offer areas where intervention may yield a better perception and hence uptake of this specialism.MethodLiterature review relating to the topic was completed. Studies pertaining to medical students and/or educators views and experiences of psychiatric medical education and clinical placement were included for discussion. A reflection on the first author's specific experiences to date of psychiatry and his intent to pursue psychiatric career was conducted, with careful reference to existing literature. This allowed validating personal experiences in light of shared experience within the medical community in various national and international settings.ResultArguably, some non-psychiatric clinicians do inadvertently set the scene early in medical school for the stigma that is to be thrust upon students. This builds upon prospective students ranking psychiatry low for satisfaction, prestige and stating it to be a ‘pseudoscience’ or words to that effect. The lack of understanding from junior medical students of the role of the psychiatrist sees them associating psychosocial education as equivalent to psychiatry. This reinforces the idea of psychiatry being grounded in sciences other than anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology. On clinical placement, there is little cross-speciality support for those students who want to be psychiatrists and sometimes even lost opportunities for those publically aspiring towards psychiatry. Placements in psychiatry give students a better understanding of psychiatry but this does not seem to significantly change their career aspirations and this is rather defined from the admission stages.ConclusionAfter comparing experience with literature, stigma towards psychiatry appears to be universal. It may be important to consider the types of students who are being attracted to medical school as currently students seem to have an intrinsic disinterest in psychiatry despite later becoming better informed through psychiatric placement. Culture is notoriously hard to change, particularly within medicine. This stigma exists both in the lay and medical communities with early potentially inaccurate lay views of psychiatry being validated and reinforced throughout medical school.

scholarly journals Depression Among Undergraduate Medical Students

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bibhusan Basnet ◽  
M Jaiswal ◽  
B Adhikari ◽  
PM Shyangwa
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Academic Stress ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Prevalence Of Depression ◽  
Inducing Factors ◽  
Major Factors

Background  Psychological stress is common in medical school and associated with depression. Medical education is grooming in Nepal, but only few studies are done concerning mental health of medical students. Objective  To assess the prevalence of depression among medical students at different levels of education and find about their stressors. Methods  A cross sectional, questionnaire-based survey was carried out among the undergraduate medical students of B.P.Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal. 50 students each from Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) first and third year were enrolled in the study conducted between November 2008 to January2009. The depression levels were assessed using Zung depression scale. Students were asked to complete the questionnaire and then the depression levels calculated .The stress inducing factors during their course of medical education were also assessed. Results  The overall prevalence of depression among the students was 29.78 percent. The prevalence of depression in first and third year was 36.74and 22.22 percent respectively. The prevalence of depression was 32.43 percent among female students versus 28.07 percent in male students. Both first and third year students gave high ratings to academic stress and hectic lifestyle as the main stress inducing factors. Conclusion  The prevalence of depression is seen especially in the first year medical students. So, attempts should be made to alleviate the stressors right from the time they join medical school. Since academic stress proved to be one of the major factors, measures to make the academic curriculum more student-friendly are suggested. Kathmandu University Medical Journal | VOL.10 | NO. 3 | ISSUE 39 | JUL- SEP 2012 | Page 56-59 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/kumj.v10i3.8021

The State of Needlestick Training for Undergraduate Medical Students at Canadian Universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Shirreff ◽  
Anita Shah ◽  
Alexandra Davidson ◽  
Eliane M. Shore ◽  
Rajiv Shah
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
The State ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Canadian Universities
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