Individuals' perceptions and expectations of nutrition care provided by doctors in Australia: A focus group study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Doctors are well placed to facilitate nutrition care to support dietary improvements due, in part, to their regular contact with their patients. Limited literature exists which explores the perspective of patients regarding the nutrition care provided by medical professionals across the continuum of care. This article explores the perspective of patients regarding perceptions of nutrition advice and care received from doctors and expectations of this care, including key skills and attributes the patients perceive as important. METHOD: Six online focus groups were conducted with Australian service users (n=32). RESULTS: Framework analysis identified four key themes: perceptions of doctors' role in nutrition care, expectations and experiences; the importance of individualised care; barriers and enablers to nutrition care; and topics, skills and attributes perceived as important in nutrition care. DISCUSSION: Patients have a desire for individualised and collaborative nutrition care but experienced systemic barriers in practice.

Measurable and immeasurable spread of knowledge for research impact: a reflection on the validated NutComp tool.

Background: Contemporary research now includes effort to generate impact beyond the creation of new knowledge. Methods: This report provides an illustrative case study of tactful research planning and dissemination for impact and provides an emerging pathway for others to holistically track reach, spread and uptake, to create a nuanced impact narrative. Results: Nutrition Competence Tool (NutComp) is a validated tool that assesses the self-perceived competence of health professionals in providing nutrition care. Since open-access publication in 2015, it has been used by researchers and health professionals in 28 countries across 6 continents. The reach, spread, uptake and impact of NutComp are summarised, including indicators to support impact tracking for knowledge. Conclusion: Given the complex phenomenon of research impact, careful planning is required to capture and attribute research impact.

Nutrition competencies for medicine: an integrative review and critical synthesis.

OBJECTIVE: Globally, 11 million deaths are attributable to suboptimal diet annually, and nutrition care has been shown to improve health outcomes. While medically trained clinicians are well-placed to provide nutrition care, medical education remains insufficient to support clinicians to deliver nutrition advice as part of routine clinical practice. Competency standards provide a framework for workforce development and a vehicle for aligning health priorities with the values of a profession. Although, there remains an urgent need to establish consensus on nutrition competencies for medicine. The aim of this review is to provide a critical synthesis of published nutrition competencies for medicine internationally. DESIGN: Integrative review. DATA SOURCES: CINAHL, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and Global Health were searched through April 2020. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included published Nutrition Competency Frameworks. This search was complemented by handsearching reference lists of literature deemed relevant. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Data were extracted into summary tables and this matrix was then used to identify common themes and to compare and analyse the literature. Miller's pyramid, the Knowledge to Action Cycle and the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition were also used to consider the results of this review. RESULTS: Using a predetermined search strategy, 11 articles were identified. Five common themes were identified and include (1) clinical practice, (2) health promotion and disease prevention, (3) communication, (4) working as a team and (5) professional practice. This review also identified 25 nutrition competencies for medicine, the majority of which were knowledge-based. CONCLUSIONS: This review recommends vertical integration of nutrition competencies into existing medical education based on key, cross-cutting themes and increased opportunities to engage in relevant, skill-based nutrition training.

Australian and New Zealand Medical Students' Attitudes and Confidence Towards Providing Nutrition Care in Practice.

The prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic disease is increasing. Doctors in primary care are ideally placed to support patient nutrition care, but recent reviews show education is still lacking. This study aimed to identify medical students' attitudes towards the role of nutrition in health, nutrition knowledge, and perceptions of nutrition education, in postgraduate (Australia) and undergraduate (New Zealand) programs in order to identify gaps in nutrition knowledge and skills to better inform future education. Second-year graduate and third-year undergraduate students participated in semi-structured focus groups and interviews. A general inductive approach was used to investigate students' 1) attitudes toward the role of nutrition in health, 2) nutrition knowledge based on nutrition-specific competencies and 3) perceived adequacy of nutrition education received. Interviews (nine) and focus groups (seven) identified four common themes: 1) role of medical practitioners in nutrition care, 2) barriers to nutrition education, 3) nutrition knowledge, and 4) nutrition-related skills. Students perceive that doctors are well-placed to provide some level of nutrition care, but poor translation of nutrition knowledge to clinical contexts is a key limitation in nutrition education. In summary, nutrition education may be insufficient to support the nutrition-related competency development of the undergraduate and postgraduate student participants in this study. Focusing on the integration of these skills into the curriculum may be a priority.