Medical students, free clinics and nutrition counseling: A job well done?

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Objectives: Low socioeconomic income has been associated with poor nutrition. Medical students often volunteer at clinics providing free or subsidized care to patients with low socioeconomic status. This study reports the results of a survey distributed tomedical students volunteering at an academic medical center's free clinic. The study aims to describe medical student attitudes towards nutrition as well as knowledge and awareness of nutritional resources available to patients with low socioeconomic status. Methods: A 13-item online survey was distributed to all four-years of medical students in the Spring of 2018. The survey included questions to evaluate students' knowledge of community resources and attitudes regarding nutrition counseling. Simple descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. Results: The survey had a 17.5% response rate. Only 20.5% of students recalled formal education throughout their medical school curriculum on nutrition counseling for patients with low socioeconomic status. Eighty-one percent were not confident in their ability to counsel patients on programs to assist maintaining a healthy diet. Fifty-nine percent were aware that low-income patients may be eligible for the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but only 36% knew the benefits of the programs and only 7% were aware of other nutrition programs in the community. Ninety-four percent of students felt that it would be helpful to receive further education in this area prior to working with this vulnerable patient population in clinic. Conclusion: Medical students do not recall formally taught nutrition information and do not feel equipped to provide nutrition counseling to patients. This educational gap could result in many patients not receiving information regarding available nutrition related resources. Students welcome further nutrition education, which should be provided throughout the curriculum instead of at a single point in time.