Application of an Interactive, Hands-On Nutritional Curriculum for Pediatric Residents

Abstract

Currently, there exists a scarcity of suitable nutrition training resources for the primary care physician (PCP) and a paucity of educational materials for pediatric residency programs. Barriers to nutritional education include: a lack of well-defined competencies, a dearth of centralized resources for nutritional education, and a reliance on didactic teaching methodology. Because PCPs often cite a lack of confidence as a primary reason for not providing nutritional counseling, we created an interactive 3-pronged nutritional curriculum for pediatric residents with the aim of increasing their confidence to provide nutritional counseling to patients. This curriculum included an in-person visit to a local supermarket, an online, interactive case during the resident’s continuity clinic, and an interactive lecture. There was a statistically significant change in pediatric residents’ confidence to manage issues of outpatient nutrition management. We find this particularly relevant as increasing physician confidence is key to increasing nutritional counseling in a clinical setting.