Cooking up better doctors as teachers globally: a novel integrated nutrition and cooking class curriculum for pediatric residents to boost their competencies and attitudes in patient counseling

The objective of the study was to identify competencies, attitudes, and health habits of pediatric residents, during the initial phase of a trial tracking the impact of a novel 21-h multi-disciplinary nutrition curriculum with hands-on cooking skills to improve patient education. We conducted a 44-question baseline survey of pediatric residents (n = 52) from 2012 to 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Univariate analyses using appropriate test statistics were performed with subsequent multivariate adjusted logistic regression. Residents reported a low perceived importance of providing nutrition education to patients and low competencies on validated education topics, as well as personal intake of fruits and vegetables below national dietary guidelines. In multivariate regression models controlling for nutritional attitudes, the significant relationship remained between inadequate daily fruit intake predicting decreased competencies for educating patients on identifying antioxidant-rich produce (OR = 0.13, 95 % CI = 0.0269–0.5833, p = 0.008), and between adequate vegetable intake and competency for daily hydration education (OR = 0.12, 95 % CI 0.0244–0.5873, p = 0.009). This survey details the barriers facing physician residents in providing effective nutrition-based preventative medicine education for patients. This study supports continued development of a longitudinal nationally scalable model of curriculum improvement from the premedical student stage of training to the attending physician stage.