Impact of an Expansion of a Clinical Nutrition Curriculum on Pre-Clerkship Medical Students' Perception of Their Knowledge and Skills Related to Performing a Nutritional Assessment

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick

Learning how to provide nutritional counseling to patients should start early in undergraduate medical education to improve physicians’ knowledge, comfort, and confidence. Two nutrition workshops for first-year medical students were developed, with the first emphasizing nutrition assessments and the second targeting dietary counseling for chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk. Students were surveyed before workshop 1, after workshop 1, and after workshop 2 to evaluate perceived knowledge, assessment comfort, counseling value, and advising confidence.

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Abstract

Introduction

nutrients Article Impact of an Expansion of a Clinical Nutrition Curriculum on Pre-Clerkship Medical Students' Perception of Their Knowledge and Skills Related to Performing a Nutritional Assessment Trey Keel, Doreen M. Olvet *, Marie Cavuoto Petrizzo, Janice T. John, Rebecca Dougherty and Eva M. Sheridan 􀀁􀀂􀀃􀀁􀀄 􀀆􀀇􀀈 􀀁􀀂􀀃􀀄􀀅􀀆􀀇 Citation: Keel, T.; Olvet, D.M.; Cavuoto Petrizzo, M.; John, J.T.; Dougherty, R.; Sheridan, E.M. Impact of an Expansion of a Clinical Nutrition Curriculum on Pre-Clerkship Medical Students'Perception of Their Knowledge and Skills Related to Performing a Nutritional Assessment. Nutrients 2021, 13, 4081. [https://doi.org/](https://doi.org/)[ ](https://doi.org/)[10.3390/nu13114081](10.3390/nu13114081) Academic Editor: Lauri Byerley Received: 28 September 2021 Accepted: 12 November 2021 Published: 15 November 2021 Publisher's Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afﬁliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ([https://](https://)[ ](https://)[creativecommons.org/licenses/by/](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[ ](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[4.0/](4.0/)) . Department of Science Education, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA; [TKeel@northwell.edu](TKeel@northwell.edu) (T.K.); [Marie.C.Petrizzo@hofstra.edu](Marie.C.Petrizzo@hofstra.edu) (M.C.P.); [Janice.T.John@hofstra.edu](Janice.T.John@hofstra.edu) (J.T.J.); [rebecca.h.dougherty@hofstra.edu](rebecca.h.dougherty@hofstra.edu) (R.D.); [Eva.M.Sheridan@hofstra.edu](Eva.M.Sheridan@hofstra.edu) (E.M.S.) * Correspondence: [doreen.olvet@hofstra.edu](doreen.olvet@hofstra.edu); Tel.: +1-516-463-7433 Abstract: Learning how to provide nutritional counseling to patients should start early in undergraduate medical education to improve the knowledge, comfort, and conﬁdence of physicians. Two nutrition workshops were developed for ﬁrst-year medical students. The ﬁrst workshop, co-led by physicians and registered dieticians, focused on obtaining nutrition assessments. The second workshop focused on the appropriate dietary counseling of patients with chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk. We surveyed students before workshop 1, after workshop 1, and after workshop 2 to assess their perceptions of the value of physician nutrition knowledge and counseling skills as well as their own comfort in the area of nutritional knowledge, assessment, and counseling. We found a signiﬁcant improvement in their self-assessed level of knowledge regarding counseling patients, in their comfort in completing a nutritional assessment, and in their conﬁdence in advising a patient about nutrition by the end of the ﬁrst workshop. By the time of the second workshop ﬁve months later, students continued to report a high level of knowledge, comfort, and conﬁdence. The implementation of clinical nutrition workshops with a focus on assessment, management, and counseling was found to be effective in increasing student's self-assessed level of knowledge as well as their conﬁdence and comfort in advising patients on nutrition. Our ﬁndings further support the previous assertion that clinical nutrition education can be successfully integrated into the pre-clerkship medical school curriculum. Keywords: nutrition; nutrition education; obesity; counseling; undergraduate medical education 1. Introduction Despite the burden that obesity places on US public health and US national medical expenditures, over 90% of physicians do not council their patients about weight loss [1,2] . There are many reasons for this, including insecurity in nutrition counseling and gaps in nutrition knowledge [2,3] . Nutrition habits develop early in life and being obese as a child leads to increased ris

FAQs

What training was included in the clinical nutrition workshops?

Two workshops were developed for first-year medical students: one focused on performing nutrition assessments, and the second focused on dietary counseling for chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk.

How did the study measure students’ perceptions?

Students were surveyed before workshop 1, after workshop 1, and after workshop 2 to assess perceived value of physician nutrition knowledge, counseling skills, and their own comfort and confidence.

What outcomes were observed after the workshops?

Students reported significant improvement by the end of the first workshop in perceived counseling knowledge, comfort completing nutritional assessments, and confidence advising patients on nutrition; high levels persisted by the time of the second workshop.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick