Introduction
The aim of this study was to determine whether a culinary medicine curriculum delivered to a multidisciplinary team of primary care medical staff and medical students in a community setting would improve self-reported efficacy in nutritional counseling and whether efficacy differed between participant roles. A 4-h interactive workshop that took place within the neighborhood of a primary care medical home was delivered to medical staff and students. Participants completed a voluntary questionnaire before and after the workshop that addressed participants’ attitudes and confidence in providing nutritional counseling to patients.
Methodology
Three 4-h culinary medicine workshops were held between May and June 2019 engaging a primary care medical home in East Baltimore. The workshops took place in the community space of a church next to the medical practice. This church was already being utilized for a weekly teaching kitchen with community residents and was equipped with an industrial sized kitchen, 2 oven ranges, and large countertop space. An adjacent large multi-purpose room was used for workshop didactics, a group lunch following meal preparation, and a debrief session.Two facilitators, a physician and a registered dietitian, led each workshop, and developed the educational objectives. The recipes used during the workshop were selected by nearby elementary/middle school students as favourite meals. The facilitators recruited 12 participants for each workshop based on the kitchen size, which could accommodate 3 teams of 4 to prepare recipes. Recruitment methods included emails to the primary care medical practice staff and medical students, along with an in-person presentation introducing the workshops to medical practice staff at their monthly administrative meeting. A variety of medical staff were recruited, including medical assistants, office assistants, nurses, and physicians. Participants were not required to have prerequisite culinary medicine experience.
Results
Thirteen of seventeen responses related to attitudes and efficacy demonstrated significant improvement after the workshop compared with prior to the workshop. Significant differences noted between roles prior to the workshop disappear when asking the same questions after the workshop. Delivery of culinary medicine curricula to a primary care medical home team in a community setting is an innovative opportunity to collaboratively improve nutritional education and counseling in chronic disease prevention
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