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Background Significant research, regulatory bodies and even governmental resolutions have identified meaningful nutrition education for medical and other healthcare professionals as a priority. Doctors are well placed to provide nutrition care, yet nutrition education in medicine remains inadequate regardless of country, setting, or year of training. There remains a need to establish an accepted benchmark on nutrition competencies for medicine, as without consensus standards there is little likelihood of uniform adoption.Objective This study aimed to establish consensus on nutrition competencies using a Delphi process to inform a framework for nutrition education in medicine.Methods A three-round modified online Delphi survey of experts in healthcare practice, education and training, and experts by experience (service users) was conducted to provide a comprehensive consensus on nutrition competencies for medical practice.Results Fifty-two experts (15.1% response rate) participated in Round 1, 42 completed Round 2 and 47 completed Round 3. Participants included medical professionals, dietitians, academics working in health professions education and policymakers from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Northern Ireland. Twenty-seven service users (57.5% response rate) completed the Round 1 questionnaire, 19 completed Round 2 and 16 completed Round 3. By consensus, 25 nutrition competencies for medicine were defined. The service user panel identified an additional seven skills and attributes considered important in the receipt of nutrition care. Competencies that achieved consensus broadly fell into themes of team-based care, communication, professionalism (eg, attributes) and health promotion and disease prevention. This informs broad skills that may be taught in a nutrition context but could be included in other domains.Conclusions The findings suggest doctors need the knowledge and skills to consider the findings from nutrition screening and assessment, coordinate nutrition care when an individual may benefit from further assessment or intervention and provide support for advice delivered by other experts as part of a multidisciplinary approach.

Background Malnutrition continues to impact healthcare outcomes, quality of life and costs to healthcare systems. The implementation of nutrition care in healthcare practice may improve health outcomes for patients and the community. This paper describes the iterative development and implementation of nutrition medical education resources for doctors and healthcare professionals in England. These resources are part of the Nutrition Education Policy for Healthcare Practice initiative.Method Action research methodology was employed to develop and implement nutrition education workshops for medical students and doctors. The workshop was developed iteratively by an interdisciplinary project team, and the content was initially based on the General Medical Council outcomes for graduates. It was evaluated using quantitative evaluation tools and informal qualitative feedback captured from attendees using tools provided by the host organisations and developed by the roadshow team.Results A total of 6 nutrition education workshops were delivered to 169 participants. This simple educational package demonstrated potential for delivery in different healthcare settings; however, formal feedback was difficult to obtain. Evaluation results indicate that workshops were better received when delivered by doctors known to the participants and included local context and examples. Reported barriers to the workshops included difficulty for participants in finding the time to attend, beliefs that peers gave a low priority to nutrition and uncertainty about professional roles in the delivery of nutrition care.Conclusion A key outcome of this project was the development of resources for nutrition training of doctors, adapted to local needs. However, relatively low attendance and multiple barriers faced in the delivery of these workshops highlight that there is no ideal ‘place’ for nutrition training in current healthcare teaching. Interprofessional education, through relevant clinical scenarios may increase awareness of the importance of nutrition in healthcare, support the alignment of health professional roles and improve subsequent knowledge and skills.

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.

Objective Poor diet is a leading cause of death worldwide. Doctors are well placed to provide dietary advice, yet nutrition remains insufficiently integrated into medical education. Enforcement of curriculum or accreditation requirements such as nutrition requires relevant regulatory frameworks. The aim of this review was to identify nutrition content or requirements for nutrition education in accreditation standards or formal curriculum guidance for medical education internationally.Design Non-systematic comparative analysis.Data sources An internet search using the Google Search engine, the WHO Directory of Medical Schools and Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research Directory of Organizations that Recognise/Accredit Medical Schools was conducted through September 2020 to identify government and organisational reports as well as publications from regulatory and professional bodies relevant to medical education.Eligibility criteria Eligible publications included (A) accreditation standards, (B) competency standards or a framework, (C) curricula, and (D) assessment content.Data extraction and synthesis We stratified findings by country or region and both preregistration and postregistration education. Findings were synthesised based on the existence of nutrition content or requirements for nutrition education within systems used to guide medical education internationally.Results This review found that despite an emphasis on meeting the needs of the community and the demands of the labour market, only 44% of accreditation and curriculum guidance included nutrition. Nutrition remains inadequately represented in accreditation and curriculum guidance for medical education at all levels internationally. Accreditation standards provide a mandated framework for curricula and inclusion of nutrition in accreditation frameworks provides an incentive for the integration of nutrition into medical education.Conclusions This review is a call to action for the medical profession including government, health agencies and educational and accreditation entities. The inclusion of nutrition in medical education has appeared throughout medical education literature for more than five decades, yet without consensus standards there is little likelihood of uniform adoption.