Current Status of Nutrition Training in Graduate Medical Education From a Survey of Residency Program Directors: A Formal Nutrition Education Course is Necessary

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Daley BJ, Cherry-Bukowiec J, Van Way III CW, et al. Current status of nutrition training in graduate medical education from a survery of residency program directors: A formal nutrition education course is necessary. J parenter Enteral Nut. 2015;XX(X):1-5.

 

            Among dietitians it is sometimes a sore subject as to whether or not they are allowed to prescribe diet orders. It changes from state to state and from hospital to hospital. The questions arise as to who is more knowledgeable in regard to diets and if doctors are prescribing diet orders then what is the point of clinical dietetics? Well, this article surveyed graduate medical education facilities to determine what level of nutrition education was being giving. Of the 72 residencies programs that responded only 19(26.4%) had a formal course in nutrition, and of these 19 institutions only 16 required that the courses be taken. The statistics go on to show that not only are nutrition classes not being given, when they are they are typically not mandatory, and even when they are given they are not effectively educating on clinical dietetics.

            This article goes on to encourage the education of physicians in nutrition at the undergrad and graduate level. They realistically state that getting a greater number of physician educators to focus on nutrition is unlikely.

            The questions really are, why are they still the ones making nutrition related decisions in clinical settings and why increase their scoop when there is an ENTIRE field of healthcare related to nutrition? This isn’t the first study to purport that physicians are undereducated in regard to nutrition and likely won’t be the last. Instead of insisting on physicians being required to get even more education, why not shift the responsibility to those who have gone to school and been trained for the sole purpose of managing food intake in relation to disease?

Ellsworth

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