Nutrition competencies for undergraduate medical education: Results of an international interdisciplinary consensus.

Abstract

BACKGROUND The gap between the nutrition education provided to medical students and the nutritional competencies and attitudes needed for physicians to provide adequate nutritional care is a global concern. There is no universally accepted benchmark on nutrition competencies for doctors. The objective of this study was to establish, by expert consensus, the objectives of undergraduate nutrition medial education, the nutrition core competencies, and strategies for curriculum development in medical nutrition education. METHODS We administered a Delphi survey to systematically gather the opinion of a panel of Latin-American experts in nutrition. The survey questionnaire was constructed considering scientific literature using a five-point Linkert scale. Consensus was defined as a higher than 70% agreement on the importance of an item (Likert scale 4 and 5). RESULTS A four-round Delphi survey was conducted for this research. In the second, third and fourth rounds, we validated by consensus a total of 130 competences, which were distributed into four different thematic areas: 1) Basic nutrition concepts, 2) Public nutrition and nutritional prevention throughout the life cycle, 3) Nutritional status and disease, and 4) Nutritional care process. CONCLUSION The curricula for general physician education in medical school must include health promotion, prevention, and treatment of diseases related to nutrition. This goal can be reached by integrating at least 130 competencies into four different fundamental areas. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.