| Nutrition is a cornerstone of health promotion and disease prevention. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated significant benefit from changes in nutrition to improve cardiovascular risk factors, decrease cardiovascular events, and reduce the risk of cancer. National guidelines have not been incorporated to a significant degree in medical education and clinical practice. Physician attitudes toward the effects of nutrition are generally positive, but physicians do not routinely integrate dietary assessment and counseling into their practice.
The purpose of this proposal is to develop a comprehensive, coordinated, integrated, and sequential nutrition curriculum across the medical education spectrum, encouraging awareness and utilization of national preventive guidelines. We will expand and improve our existing nutrition course and seminars, and will develop, coordinate, and carefully evaluate a curriculum that provides nutrition teaching at a time when it can be practiced and learned. In addition, we will enhance the curriculum for physician's assistants and nurses, expand primary care exposure for dietitians, and encourage multidisciplinary efforts to include assessment and counseling in routine practice. We will develop a faculty training program in clinical nutrition to encourage the teaching, modeling, and support that is needed to reinforce nutritional counseling skills of students. Nutritional counseling in residency and community practices will improve through development of model practice systems, quality improvement, consultations, web-based technology, and training programs developed through national specialty organizations.
These efforts, developed in conjunction with other awardees' successful programs, will improve knowledge, attitudes, and skills of physicians and other health professionals to ensure comprehensive nutrition education and practice integration of clinical nutrition guidelines.
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