Teaching of clinical nutrition at the University of Crete, School of Medicine, Greece.

The prevalence of malnutrition in hospitalized patients is reported to be unacceptably high, and lack of nutrition awareness among physicians/surgeons and medical students is considered an important contributory factor. We report our experience with the recently instituted clinical nutrition course at the medical school of the University of Crete, Greece. The course was designed with a bias in favor of the clinical application of nutrition at the patient and community level rather than in the format of formalized lectures. The students' answers to a questionnaire regarding the course indicated that 90% enjoyed it in terms of learning, 97% benefited from it, and 79% would like to see it adopted as the mode of teaching in the future. It is suggested that, in keeping with emerging evidence, such courses may have an important role in the teaching, application, and increased awareness of nutrition among medical students and practicing physicians.