There is a long history of limited nutrition education in advanced healthcare curricula. This leaves healthcare providers unprepared to use nutrition to treat diagnoses that have been shown to respond to dietary intervention. This project attempted to determine if the knowledge, attitudes and confidence about nutrition could be improved with a short course.
The sample consisted of seven students in master’s programs in the social work and nursing fields. Students completed an eight module virtual training on the Mediterranean diet and phytochemical specific prescribing strategies. Participants completed a pre- and post-assessment evaluation gauging knowledge, Likert scale questions evaluating confidence, and open-ended questions assessing attitudes toward implementing gained knowledge into practice.
Results showed the mean score for the pre-assessment was 60.39 (S.D.=14.12) and for the post-assessment was 65.58 (S.D.=9.32). The Wilcoxon Ranks Test shows significant improvement (p<0.05) for fifteen of the eighteen questions related to confidence in nutrition information. Open-ended attitude questions revealed that participants were interested in sharing the newly-learned nutrition information with community members and clients. Social work and nursing students may benefit from incorporating added nutrition education into their curricula. Further programming implementations in the area, including possible trial integration into curricula, are needed to further evaluate effectiveness.