Introduction:
Disease-related malnutrition (DRM) is a condition that results from a lack of sufficient
uptake or intake of energy and nutrients. It leads to altered body composition with
diminished function and a negative clinical outcome. DRM is a worldwide problem that
is highly prevalent (20 – 50% of the admitted patients in hospitals). It has negative
effects on health and is often associated with an increased risk of complications,
including increased morbidity and mortality rates with concomitant economic impact.
Nutritional education of physicians is vital in treating and preventing DRM. The physicians'
initial knowledge about the management of malnutrition is poor, due to little emphasis
laid on clinical nutrition in medical education and training. However, knowledge is
an eminent factor to ameliorate malnutrition management in hospitals. It is important
to clearly define the responsibilities and to develop optimized processes to compensate
lack of time to manage malnutrition in hospitals.
Objectives:
The aim of the master thesis was to design and plan the ME-NU study (Medical Education
– Nutrition), that examines the effect of multifaceted nutritional education for resident
and senior physicians on their knowledge and its translation to clinical practice.
This study will be conducted in January 2018.
Methods:
The required documents for the Ethics Committee were prepared, reviewed in various
expert rounds and submitted. Two educational tools (interactive case presentation
and online case vignettes) were developed and tested with medical students to evaluate
the performance.
Results:
The documents submitted were analyzed by the Ethics Committee and considered not needing
approval. In the evaluation trials, interactive case presentation and online case
vignettes improved the students' knowledge by 10.7% (n = 7, p = 0.061) and 1.2% (n = 27, p = 0.691), respectively. Both strategies increased the awareness of clinical nutrition to
the students and were rated as instructive. Physicians are interested in clinical
nutrition, but the lack of knowledge, time pressure, and unclear responsibility negatively
impact the issue.
Conclusion:
The interactive case presentation represents an appropriate method to educate students.
The contribution of the online case vignettes can be further improved by including
a personal introduction to the topic, incorporating additional exercises and spending
more time on the theory blocks. Additionally, during the online education, focus on
the education needs to be guaranteed.
Disclosure of Interest:
None declared.
