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Program for strengthening nutrition as a teaching subject at medical schools and faculties in Mexico |
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Program for strengthening nutrition as a teaching subject at medical schools and faculties in Mexico
Background
Doctors can only influence family health habits and well-being to a limited extent: throughout their courses, medicine students do not acquire enough knowledge (certainly not quality) to aid their performance in the field of nutrition, and the few nutriology-related topics included in study programs often bear no relation to medical practices in general. This problems is not exclusively ours. Many international publications document similar situations abroad.
In order to overcome this situation, many countries have promoted teaching nutrition at medical schools. In Mexico this movement took shape since 1990, through the Program for strengthening nutrition as a teaching subject at medical schools and faculties, under the guidance of Funsalud and the Mexican Association of Medical Schools and Faculties (AMFEM), and the NNF.
Aims
Introducing nutrition as a teaching subject at medical schools and faculties in Mexico will prepare graduates to solve the most common nutrition-related problems and give counsel on feeding habits to their patients and their families.
Achievements
- Both directors and teaching staff at medical schools and faculties have been made aware of the importance of introducing nutrition in their study programs.
- Resident doctors were evaluated by means of a "false-true-I don't know" type of survey that tested their knowledge on nutriology. These were general practitioners doing residence courses on gynaeco-obstetrics, pediatrics or internal medicine. They were compared with a contrasting group of college-level Nutriology students. The practitioners got marks below the minimum approved levels. The college students got marks that were very close to the minimum approved levels. Casanueva E, Vald茅s R. : El conocimiento nutriol贸gico de m茅dicos residentes. Rev Invest. Clin. 1991; 43:211-214.
- Organization of a course on nutrition for medicine school and faculty teachers: A module of medical nutrition was included, integrated when the students finished their basic subjects. The course lasted 53 hours: 22 theory, 32 practice, including workshop and laboratory. The course comprised three parts: a) the first, lasting 14 hours, covered general aspects of nutrients, food groups and anthropometrics, as well as clinic and dietetic evaluations; b) the second part, lasting 12 hours, dealt with nourishment and nutrition of healthy individuals at different stages of their life cycles, and c) the third part, lasting 26 hours, included subjects of nourishment and nutrition among ill individuals.
The contents of this course were chosen in collaboration with eight medicine schools and faculties. Dr. Guillermo Sober贸n: Enseñanza de la nutrici贸n en la carrera de medicina en: Nutrici贸n Cl铆nica, 1994: Memorias de un Simposio Internacional
- Teachers' training program: In august 1992, the first training course for teachers was imparted at eight medicine schools and faculties. The course was given by the authors of the book "Nutiolog铆a M茅dica" (Medical Nutriology), not yet written then. The aim of the course was to evaluate the organization of the contents of the nutrition course described above.
- In 1990, FUNSALUD and the AMFEM undertook a diagnostic survey which revealed that only a small number of medical schools in Mexico offered nutrition courses; a few taught vaguely related topics with an emphasis on Biochemistry and Physiology; and the rest did not explicitly include nutrition in their study programs. The survey also revealed that there were few specialists teaching, that the infrastructure for clinical teaching was poor, and that high-level students were bad on knowledge of nutrition. This article describes those activities related to the teaching of nutrition at medical schools and faculties in Mexico, emphasizing both the state of nutrition before the Program for strengthening nutrition as a teaching subject at medical schools and faculties, as well as the description of a basic study program and the presentation of applied strategies to promote it. Arroyo P, Casanueva E, Kaufer-Horwitz M, P茅rez-Lizaur, C贸rdova-Villalobos J.A., Polo Ernestina:Formaci贸n nutriol贸gica en las escuelas de medicina de M茅xico. Rev Invest Clin 1998, 50:517-24
- The book Nutriolog铆a M茅dica has been recently published. It is meant to become a key instrument to promote the teaching of nutrition as a separate subject and unify the education and training of the teaching staff. The first edition came out in 1995; since then it has been reprinted twice. The second edition (5,000 copies) was put to sale on stores in March 2001. The work is now being reprinted. It covers three main aspects: 1) general and preventive, 2) diagnostic, and 3) basic aspects.
- Seven training and updating courses for teachers from 54 schools and faculties were carried out at the Salvador Zubir谩n National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition.
- Eleven medical schools were given financial support to develop infrastructure for the teaching of nutrition.
- A cycle of seminars on medical nutriology was carried out. Its aim was the diffusion of medical nutriology topics that might interest general practitioners, with an emphasis on the training of teachers at medical schools and faculties. Up to now six seminars have taken place, all of them at the Congress Unit of the Centro M茅dico Nacional Siglo XXI, organized along with AMFEM, and with the support of Medical Societies that gather specialists in pediatrics, obstetrics, internal medicine, and gastroenterology.
- The Program of Nestle Scholarships for Clinical Nutriology has set up as its aim the training of new specialists in nutrition. The NNF offers three 2-year scholarships for resident practitioners interested in specializing in clinical nutrition. This specialty is taught by the Division of Post-Graduate Studies of the Medical Faculty of the UNAM, at the department of Clinical Nutriology of the Salvador Zubir谩n National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition. The post-grad on Clinical Nutriology was designed to train specialists in diagnosing and handling nutriological problems, focusing on medical practices, and to prepare them for teaching and researching on medical nutriology. The residence program contemplates full-time involvement in the development of applicable clinical activities, which count for 70% of the total credits, and more methodological and research-oriented ones, which represent the remaining 30%. The Clinical Nutriology residence program is managed by a Committee in charge of coordinating, supervising, and monitoring the program. The Committee also selects the scholarship holders and evaluates their performance. The Program of Nestle Scholarships has given out as many scholarships as the Ministry of Health. Requirements.
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