MEDICAL EDUCATION NUTRITION CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
STRATEGIC VISION
Physician expertise in nutritional sciences is a fundamental component of high-quality, patient-centered care. Nutrition has a direct impact on disease prevention, management of chronic disease, health promotion, and long-term health outcomes across the lifespan.
Our phased curriculum is poised and establishes a longitudinal competency-based approach to integrating nutritional sciences into the undergraduate medical education. The strategic integration ensures graduates are prepared to evaluate, communicate, and apply evidence-based nutrition principles in primary care and in diverse clinical contexts that align with our school’s commitment to excellence in competency-based medical education, interprofessional collaboration, preventative care, and measurable improvement in community health outcomes.
EDUCATION RATIONALE
Nutrition is a cornerstone of preventive medicine and central to the management of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, renal disease, and gastrointestinal disorders encountered in daily clinical practice. Yet, nutrition education has historically been fragmented across medical education. The framework addresses that gap through threading nutrition education via vertical and horizontal integration across all phases of the curriculum, structured competency-based education and assessment to clinical outcome in clinical settings; aligned with the national benchmark for comprehensive, clinically relevant nutrition education of foundational competencies, informed by the 2024 JAMA Consensus Statement and advocated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Medical Education Nutrition Competency Framework.
By embedding and weaving nutrition education across the curricular phases (preclinical and clinical), students develop both foundational knowledge and applied clinical skills in nutritional sciences.
CURRICULUM STRUCTURE & PHASED INTEGRATION
The curriculum is structured in three progressive phases – advancing students from foundational science knowledge and skills through clinical application and professional readiness for postgraduate training.
Phase 1: Foundational Science Knowledge
In the pre-clerkship years, nutritional competencies are embedded within:
- Foundational and Interdisciplinary organ-based systems courses, such as medical biochemistry, fundamentals of health and disease, endocrine, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, renal, and reproductive system courses. Core nutrition science and metabolism are integrated with pathophysiology (nutrition-related disease) via team-based, case-based and problem-based learning applications; assessed through standardized examination tools.
- Early clinical skills training on nutrition history, dietary assessment, social determinants of health and nutrition, structured patient encounters, and communication-motivational interviewing.
Early exposure establishes baseline competence in nutritional science, patient assessment, and foundational communication skills.
Phase 2: Core Clinical Application
During required clinical clerkships, nutritional competencies are embedded in direct patient care settings:
- Nutrition-focused objectives are embedded in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology clerkships.
- Assessment of nutritional status (dietary history, physical exam, and interpretation of metabolic biomarkers).
- Application of nutritional principles in diagnosis and management (application and interpretation of metabolic biomarkers, dietary interventions)
- Students participate in observed structured clinical encounters that involve assessing nutritional status, setting goals, and engaging in communication and motivational interviewing.
- Students are assessed through a framework of direct observation, competency-based clinical evaluation, which includes synthesis of nutrition competencies in clinical reasoning, and interprofessional practice and standardized examination tools.
- Interprofessional experiences allow collaboration with nutritional services and community health educators.
Clinical assessments establish competency and reinforce accountability in nutrition and dietary history taking, integration of nutrition in the care of patients, differential diagnosis, therapeutic planning, and patient education.
Phase 3: Advanced Integration & Skills
In the final phase, the curriculum reinforces nutrition mastery and real-world application:
- Electives and Sub-Internships refine students' ability to address and apply nutrition-informed clinical reasoning in primary and complex clinical populations (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, etc.) and integrate evidence-based nutrition information in patient-centered care.
- Implementing electives in Lifestyle and Culinary Medicine will refamiliarize students with the biochemical basis of nutrition, nutrition epidemiology, nutrition-related preventive health care, as well as hands-on experience in food preparation and services.
Students demonstrate enhanced competency in nutritional assessment, counseling, and integration of nutrition in clinical decision-making. Graduates enter residency prepared to incorporate nutrition-informed patient-centered care.
IMPACT
The Medical Education Nutrition Curriculum Framework strengthens our educational mission to Teach, Heal, and Discover by enhancing our graduates' readiness for clinical training and practice. Our framework also positions nutrition as a key topic in undergraduate medical education and as a core clinical competency essential to the practice of medicine.
OPPORTUNITIES
Future work focuses on longitudinal tracking of competency attainment, refinement of assessment metrics, and expansion of community-engaged learning opportunities.
