Summary:
Physicians often have to face nutritional problems, including obesity and malnutrition, in addition to rising public demand for nutrition advice about their eating habits. Our aim was to verify whether nutrition instruction is carried on a regular basis at Medical Schools (MS) of Minas Gerais state.
Methods:
on March 1996, questions were sent to all (n=10) MS, asking about their Clinical Nutrition teaching.
Results:
all but one MS answered the questions. Only two Medical Schools regularly taught nutrition to their students: Uberaba Medical School, which have full time nutrition teachers giving regular and obligatory practical and theoretical Nutrition course, and Medical School of Minas Gerais University, which offers an optative Pediatric Nutrition course. All the other MS teach nutrition as fag-ends of biochemistry, endocrinology and pediatrics.
Conclusions:
lack of Clinical Nutrition identity and of nutrition trained teachers in university hospitals may explain the inadequate medical student training in nutrition's field.
Keywords:
Nutrition - education; Medical education; Medical Schools