Resident and Preceptor Education in Nutrition and Cancer This study proposes to improve the nutrition and cancer education of practicing resident physicians. This is a long-term process using an innovative point-of-care approach delivered within a busy clinical practice. Our subjects will be primary care residents who are soon to become medical specialists. Emphasis will be placed on practical, cost-effective and credible education resources to enable them to effectively counsel their patients in nutrition and cancer treatment and prevention. Graduates of medical school residency programs represent an ideal and understudied group to target for nutrition education training. Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatric physicians give continuing, comprehensive, and preventive medical care to a diverse group of patients from birth to the senior years. Residents from three medical schools located in Nevada, Kansas and California will participate. The education model used has been successfully developed and implemented in our previous 5-year NCI R25 education grant with medical school community physicians (preceptors) who train medical students in their clinical offices throughout the state of Nevada.
Our specific aims are: 1) Nutrition in Clinical Practice: Resident Nutrition Professional (Pro). Design, implement and evaluate a multifaceted point-of-care nutrition and cancer education program for primary care residents which will guide them in incorporating credible components in their clinical care. 2) Nutrition in Clinical Care: Outreach and Dissemination of our Model. Disseminate this innovative nutrition and cancer model to satellite projects at other medical schools. We propose to demonstrate that this work enables physicians to be more effective and engaged in improving their patient's lifestyle and health. Project Narrative The overall anticipated benefit of this study is the implementation and evaluation of a medical educational system for primary care residents to enhance their knowledge in nutrition and cancer, with an emphasis on patient care and practical preventive strategies. This study is designed to enable residents to play a major role in facilitating dietary change in their patients and serve as role-models for the medical students they in-turn train. The transportability of the proposed education study will be tested and refined in Nevada, Kansas and California before being disseminated regionally and nationally.
