Nutrition Education Policy in Healthcare Practice (NEPHELP)

Reporter Name

Our Work Category

Matheus Abrantes

Education and Training Centre

SUMMARY

NEPHELP aims to improve nutrition training for doctors by developing, testing, and implementing nutrition education resources in hospitals and community settings. The project involves presenting core nutrition materials to doctors and other healthcare professionals, collecting their feedback, and tailoring the material and delivery to best fit their needs. NNEdPro uses the findings from this project to advocate for greater nutrition in mandatory healthcare curricula.

BACKGROUND

Nutrition training in UK medical schools is limited. Despite the fact that most doctors and medical students agree on the importance of nutrition in health and the role of doctors in promoting nutrition, studies have found that most doctors feel that their nutrition training is inadequate. As such, many doctors do not feel confident in giving nutrition advice to their patients. This lack of robust nutrition education for doctors contributes to poorer patient health outcomes.

Aims

- To empower doctors with greater nutrition training to become champions of nutrition in their local team.
- To improve patient care and reduce the pressure of inappropriate or unsupported referrals to dietitians.
- To advocate for adequate levels of nutrition education in medical school and doctor’s training.
- To increase the focus on nutrition and lifestyle change to prevent and treat disease, supported by a trained healthcare workforce, working seamlessly between hospitals and the community.

Outcomes

- Publication of a peer-reviewed paper following a survey of junior doctor’s and medical student’s opinions of nutrition training and confidence levels.
- Developed a core nutrition workshop for medical professionals and delivered this training across England.
- Adapted the core nutrition workshop for an online virtual learning environment, directed at primary care doctors (GPs).

Timeline

2018: NEPHELP is developed through an MNI-ESPEN funded grant
2018-2019: NEPHELP team surveys junior doctors and medical students for their opinions on nutrition training and confidence levels. A peer-reviewed paper is published in the BMJ.
2019-2020: A core nutrition workshop for medical professionals is developed and delivered across England.
2020: The nutrition workshop is adapted for an online virtual learning environment.
Present: Feedback on the nutrition workshop is being collected from primary care doctors (GPS).

Project Team

Sumantra Ray (Principal Investigator), Kathy Martyn (Principal Investigator), Luke Buckner (Deputy Principal Investigator), Elaine MacAninch (Deputy Principal Investigator), Breanna Lepre (Project Coordination Lead), Ebiambu Agwara (Project Coordination Lead), Wanja Nyaga (Project Coordination Lead), Matheus Abrantes (Project Coordination Lead), Pauline Douglas (Key Advisor), Minha Rajput-Ray (Key Advisor), Shivani Bhat (Key Advisor), Halima Jama (Key Advisor).