Competencies in nutrition that U.S. medical students should acquire.

The nutrition education that most medical students receive is inadequate in quantity and quality, according to the National Research Council, which conducted a study of nutrition education in one-third of the medical schools in the United States. This finding stimulated the creation of the present study, which identified basic competencies in the field of nutrition that medical students should acquire and obtained the opinions of 484 medical school faculty members concerning both the importance of these competencies and where in the medical school curriculum students should acquire them. Of 39 competencies, the faculty members judged that 33 should be included in medical school curricula. Those rated most important were competencies in the use of enteral and parenteral feeding techniques in patient therapy, the improvement of fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and knowledge of the role of nutrition in the identification and management of selected disease states. There was significant agreement in ratings and curriculum placements by preclinical and clinical faculty members.