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Improving Nutrition Education with Second-Year Medical Students: From Take-Home Assignment to Large-Group Application Exercise

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Abstract

Augmenting its nutrition education, the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Endocrinology course initially used a case-based, take-home assignment on type II diabetes dietary guidelines, with literature search requirement and a module on relevant social determinants of health (SDOH). Course evaluations indicated this assignment did not adequately improve student perceptions of learning. For the subsequent cohort, we changed to a large-group active learning session, requiring one faculty facilitator, where student teams created problem lists including SDOH and reviewed research articles to support evidence-based nutrition recommendations. Survey results indicate that the new session resulted in significantly improved student perceptions of learning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities, Health and Society, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Julia Bisschops & Gregory W. Schneider

  2. Department of Cellular Biology and Pharmacology, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Sabyasachi Moulik

Authors
  1. Julia Bisschops
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  2. Sabyasachi Moulik
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  3. Gregory W. Schneider
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gregory W. Schneider.

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Ethical Approval

The Florida International University Office of Research Integrity reviewed the study and determined that it was Not Human Subject Research (NHSR). The project was exempt and did not require the submission to and approval of the FIU Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB exemption statement is available upon request, IRB Protocol NHSR no. IRB-20–0352.

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As this project was not considered Human Subject Research, informed consent was not required.

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Granted by all the authors.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bisschops, J., Moulik, S. & Schneider, G.W. Improving Nutrition Education with Second-Year Medical Students: From Take-Home Assignment to Large-Group Application Exercise. Med.Sci.Educ. 31, 1287–1290 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01342-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01342-7

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