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BRINGING NUTRITION EDUCATION INTO THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM
Nutritank is an innovative information hub for food, nutrition and lifestyle medicine. It is promoting the need for greater education in medical training around nutrition and lifestyle medicine. Nutritank was created in 2017 by two UK medical students (now junior doctors) Dr Iain Broadley and Dr Ally Jaffee, as they were both frustrated by the lack of nutrition in their course whilst studying at Bristol University.
What is the problem? The General Medical Council (GMC) publishes guidelines on the competencies expected from UK medical schools, however there are no set quantities or qualities for nutrition education. A recent study found that 95% of participants (medical students and doctors) believed that doctors play an important role in providing nutrition care, yet 70% reported receiving fewer than 2 hours of nutrition teaching whilst at medical school (Macaninch et al., 2020). Lack of knowledge has been reported as the most common barrier to providing nutrition advice for patients. A comprehensive review is required to really understand where the gaps in nutrition education lie.
Why Nutritank is there to fill the gap and solve this problem
RACHEL WHITE Lead Dietitian for Nutritank VIEW CONTRIBUTOR’S BIO
Nutritank now has 25 medical school branches with over 600 medical students and junior doctors signed up to support the cause. They aim to provide their members and followers with evidencedbased information on nutrition and lifestyle to enable them to utilise this in their training and careers to enable their patients to make positive and sustainable changes to improve their health. As well as championing improved nutrition education, they are also raising this issue within the media. Using their social media and podcast to increase their reach has been hugely successful.
