Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9600
ISSN: 2155-9600
Robert E. Graham
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nutr Food Sci
The need for health care providers to be equipped to offer nutritional support to patients is clear; the means of doing so is not. Our objective was to assess the reasons why residents at Lenox Hill Hospital chose to enroll in a nutrition education program Methods: We utilized a NYC culinary school for our workshop, during the kitchen session; chef-instructors used recipes from The Mediterranean Prescription. Participants were selected after an email was sent to all residents at Lenox Hill Hospital, upon selection they attended a six part lecture series throughout the year, as well as a monthly nutrition talk given by a nutritionist. For consideration, we asked them to submit an essay, emphasizing the following: why you are interested in this program? how you will utilize what you learn from this course to change your own approach to nutrition and eating? and how you will apply this knowledge to the care of your patients. A theme analysis was applied to assess reasons why residents chose to apply to the program. Results: 16 residents of varying training programs wrote essays to apply to the nutrition education program. Seven themes emerged; top three were, 56% alluded to a lack of nutrition education, 44% listed diseases with relation to diet, and 44% wrote about a desire to make changes to their own lives. Conclusions: Residents applied to our program to enhance nutritional education?both for themselves and their patients, with the hopes of improving health and their ability to facilitate that goal.
Robert E. Graham, MD, MPH is board-certified in Internal and Integrative Medicine. Currently, he serves as the Associate Program Director of Ambulatory Care and Director of Resident Research. Prior to joining the department, he completed a Master?s of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health while completing two additional fellowships in General Internal Medicine/ Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School and Medical Education at Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Graham has spoken extensively about his innovative cooking/nutrition program to provide residents with the skills they need to model healthy cooking and eating behaviors.