Short but effective educational interventions in medicine and healthcare–lessons learnt from the ‘Need for Nutrition Education Programme’

Background: Medical school curricula are faced with a number of topics which do not fit into individual specialty-based teaching. Cross-specialty educational interventions may be useful in addressing such topics. The Need for Nutrition Education Programme (NNEdPro) exemplifies this through developing an intervention to enhance nutrition-related knowledge in tomorrow’s doctors.
Aim: To develop an educational intervention framework that was rapid, effective and potentially transferrable to other medical education teaching.
NNEdPro Course Development and Delivery: A multi-disciplinary faculty was assembled and an innovative educational intervention piloted on ninety-eight medical students from fifteen universities across England. Funding for the project was provided by an unrestricted educational grant over a two year period.
NNEdPro Educational Framework: The framework used, comprised an innovative mix of medical education techniques including: mini-problem based learning (mini-PBL) sessions, an interactive OSCE-style practical carousel, simulated scenarios, demonstrations, and lectures, taking a spiral learning approach, within a short non-vertical timeframe. Evaluation of the NNEdPro intervention found that participants increased Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) scores after this intervention. Qualitative feedback indicated that this teaching framework was well received.
Conclusion: Generic lessons learnt from this intervention resulted in a novel educational framework that can potentially be utilised in other areas of medical education, including an addition programme which taught clinical nutrition, project management and leadership skills to Junior Doctors.