Go to main content
Formats
Format
BibTeX
MARCXML
TextMARC
MARC
DublinCore
EndNote
NLM
RefWorks
RIS

Files

Abstract

There is a long history of limited nutrition education in advanced healthcare curricula. This leaves healthcare providers unprepared to use nutrition to treat diagnoses that have been shown to respond to dietary intervention. A Mediterranean diet rich in phytochemicals can be used to prevent and treat a variety of medical illnesses. Phytochemicals are compounds found in plants that are biologically active in humans. Scientists have found that the pathways the phytochemicals take in the body are often similar to pharmaceutical pathways.The purpose of the project was to improve healthcare professional students’ understanding of the role of food in improvement of health outcomes and develop their confidence in this role by instructing students on phytochemicals and nutrition and their relationships to health outcomes. The project question was: for interprofessional students in a healthcare-centered professional program of study, can a short course in focused nutrition increase knowledge and confidence and improve attitudes about sharing nutrition-based counseling, compared to their pre-assessment data, when engaging with community clients? The term "PhytoRx" was adopted to convey the prescription of pertinent produce for diagnoses. "Phyto" refers to "phytochemicals" and "Rx" refers to "prescriptions" that match particular fruits and vegetables to particular disease processes. The sample consisted of 17 students in master’s programs in the social work and nursing fields with seven of those completing the program. Each student completed an eight module, asynchronous virtual training on the Mediterranean style of eating and phytochemical specific prescribing strategies. Participants completed a pre- and post-assessment evaluation with multiple choice questions gauging knowledge, Likert scale questions evaluating confidence, and semi-structured, open-ended questions assessing attitudes toward implementing gained knowledge into practice. The module was self-paced and took approximately four hours to complete. Data was collected from the module platform and entered into a spreadsheet and quantitative data was entered into SPSS for evaluation. Total pre- and post-assessment scores were recorded as well as before/after confidence questions and open-ended answers. Results showed the mean score for the pre-assessment was 60.39 (S.D.=14.12) and for the post-assessment was 65.58 (S.D.=9.32). The Wilcoxon Ranks Test shows significant improvement (p<0.05) for fifteen of the eighteen questions related to confidence in nutrition information. Open-ended attitude questions revealed that participants were interested in sharing the newly-learned nutrition information with community members and clients. Social work and nursing students may benefit from incorporating added nutrition education into their curricula. Further programming implementations in the area, including possible trial integration into curricula, are needed to further evaluate effectiveness.

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History