Cross-Cultural Mentorship in Military Family Medicine: Defining the Problem.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Mentorship is critical to physician recruitment, career development, and retention. Many underrepresented in medicine (URiM) physicians experience minority taxes that can undermine their professional objectives. Use of cross-cultural mentoring skills to navigate differences between non-URiM and URiM physicians can make mentorship relationships with URiM physicians more effective. This survey examined military family physician demographics and mentorship practices. METHODS: Design and Setting: Cross-sectional study using voluntary, anonymous data from the 2021 Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians (USAFP) Annual Meeting Omnibus Survey. STUDY POPULATION: USAFP Members attending 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting. INTERVENTION: None. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics and χ2 tests. RESULTS: The response rate to the omnibus survey was 52.9%, n=258. More than half of respondents did not have a URiM mentee and had not collaborated with a URiM colleague on a scholarly activity within the last 3 years. Only 54.7% of respondents could recognize and address minority taxes. URiM physicians were more likely to have a URiM mentee (65.4% vs 44.4%, P=.042) and to recognize and address minority taxes (84.6% vs 51.3%, P=.001). They also were more confident (84.6% vs 60.3%, P=.015) and more skilled in discussing racism (80.8% vs 58.2%, P=.026). CONCLUSIONS: Structured programs are needed to improve knowledge and skills to support cross-cultural mentorship. Additional studies are needed to further evaluate and identify implementation strategies.

Nutrition History Taking: A Practical Approach.

About 60% of adults in the United States have one or more diet-related chronic diagnoses, including cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and obesity. It is imperative to address nutrition health in the clinical setting to decrease diet-related morbidity and mortality. Family physicians can use validated nutrition questionnaires, nutrition-tracking tools, and smartphone applications to obtain a nutrition history, implement brief intervention plans, and identify patients who warrant referral for interdisciplinary nutrition care. The validated Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants-Shortened Version, v.2 (REAP-S v.2) can be quickly used to initiate nutrition history taking. Patient responses to the REAP-S v.2 can guide physicians to an individualized nutrition history focused in the four areas of nutrition: insight and motivation, dietary intake pattern, metabolic demands and comorbid conditions, and consideration of other supplement or substance use. Family physicians should refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans when assessing patient nutrient intake quality and pattern; however, it is also essential to assess nutrition health within the context of an individual patient. It is important to maintain a basic understanding of popular diet patterns, although diet pattern adherence is a better predictor of successful weight loss than diet type. Using various counseling and goal-setting techniques, physicians can partner with patients to identify and develop a realistic goal for nutrition intervention.