Towards Interdisciplinary Efforts (Adult Population)

Mogre et al. (2018) comment on the report that medical students and doctors have been insufficiently educated on nutrition during their training despite the many benefits of nutritional care in the medical sector (can reduce morbidities, mortalities, and overall medical costs). In this study, medical students were asked about their opinions on the doctors’ role in nutrition care and on the education they receive regarding nutrition. The sample included 23 fifth to final year medical students in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University for Development Studies in Ghana. Semi-structured interviews on nutrition education were conducted with the students. Although the academics believed doctors have a crucial role to play in providing nutritional care to their patients, the nutritional education they received was not enough from their perspectives. Poor application of nutritional science was reported, as well as poor collaboration with dietary professionals. The students provided several suggestions for strategies to improve nutritional educational experiences. These included increasing the awareness of nutrition education’s importance, revision of the curriculum to include nutrition, and involving nutrition/dietician specialists in medical education. These are only some of the suggestions for addressing the barriers to nutrition education.