An Interactive Session on Nutritional Pathologies for Health Professional Students

Various studies have emphasized the need to improve the nutrition training of health professionals, which will help them to provide optimal patient care. Nutrition-based interactive sessions may serve as an efficient approach to instigate an interest in nutrition among the students. Here we report the reception and effectiveness of a nutrition-pathology based interactive activity that we designed and implemented in the gastroenterology course given to the second year students at our medical school. The activity involved team work, individual accountability and peer-teaching. Nutrition pathology case stems (Kwashiorkor, vitamin B-12 deficiency, zinc deficiency and zinc-induced copper deficiency) were posted on the course website for the students to read before the session. At the start of the session, all the groups (each made up of four members) took a pre-quiz. Each student was then given an information sheet describing one case. Each group discussed the four cases with students acting as the "teacher" for the case assigned to them. A post-quiz was administered to the groups to assess acquisition of knowledge as well as in-depth thinking about the nutrition aspects discussed. The efficacy of the session measured by pre (39% questions correctly answered in total) and post-quizzes (96% questions correctly answered in total) and the overwhelmingly positive student feedback indicated that the session was highly effective. Ninety-five percent of students thought that the session demonstrated the clinical relevance of nutrition, while 98% students found the peer teaching to be engaging.