Research
Research and Professional Brief
Multi-School Collaboration to Develop and Test Nutrition Computer Modules for Pediatric Residents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2007.06.008Get rights and content

Abstract

The provision of essential nutrition-related content in US medical education has been deficient, despite efforts of the federal government and multiple professional organizations. Novel and efficient approaches are needed. A multi-department project was developed to create and pilot a computer-based compact disc instructional program covering the nutrition topics of oral rehydration therapy, calcium, and vitamins. Funded by an internal medical school grant, the content of the modules was written by Department of Pediatrics faculty. The modules were built by School of Informatics faculty and students, and were tested on a convenience sampling of 38 pediatric residents in a randomized controlled trial performed by a registered dietitian/School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Master’s degree candidate. The modules were reviewed for content by the pediatric faculty principal investigator and the registered dietitian/School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences graduate student. Residents completed a pretest of nutrition knowledge and attitude toward nutrition and Web-based instruction. Half the group was given three programs (oral rehydration therapy, calcium, and vitamins) on compact disc for study over 6 weeks. Both study and control groups completed a posttest. Pre- and postintervention objective test results in study vs control groups and attitudinal survey results before and after intervention in the study group were compared. The experimental group demonstrated significantly better posttrial objective test performance compared to the control group (P=0.0005). The study group trended toward improvement, whereas the control group performance declined substantially between pre- and posttests. Study group resident attitudes toward computer-based instruction improved. Use of these computer modules prompted almost half of the residents in the study group to independently pursue relevant nutrition-related information. This inexpensive, collaborative, multi-department effort to design a computer-based nutrition curriculum positively impacted both resident knowledge and attitudes.

Section snippets

Methods

The content for the computer modules was provided by faculty physicians of the Department of Pediatrics and a clinical dietitian/master’s candidate. The University School of Informatics team developed a single, standardized interface for all of the modules. Each module was designed to be completed in approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Content for each module included an overview of the topic, background, physiology, treatment or management, and parent education. The nutrition content was reviewed,

Results and Discussion

The study began with 47 enrollees: 23 subjects in the control group and 24 subjects in the study group. The study ended with nine drop-outs (19%), four subjects from the control group and five from the study group, leaving a total of 38 subjects, 19 in each group. The resulting groups after dropout were not significantly different in terms of age, sex, or ethnicity, but differed somewhat in level of medical education. The study group had two more postgraduate first-year subjects and two fewer

P. L. Roche is a clinical dietitian, Clarian Health Partners, Indianapolis, IN.

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    P. L. Roche is a clinical dietitian, Clarian Health Partners, Indianapolis, IN.

    M. R. Ciccarelli is associate chair of Education-Pediatrics and associate director of Internal Medicine-Pediatrics; S. K. Gupta is associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition; and J. P. Molleston is section director, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, all at the Indiana University School of Medicine and James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis.

    B. M. Hayes is an academic specialist, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis School of Informatics, Indianapolis.

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