Program for Medical and Dental School Students

The overall purpose of the instruction program is to prepare individuals for positions in teaching, research, and leadership in nutrition programs both in the United States and abroad.

The first year of the curriculum in the College of Physicians and Surgeons emphasizes normal human biology. Courses include a year-long, systems based, integrated course entitled "Science Basic to the Practice of Medicine and Dentistry" (SBPMD), taken by medical, dental, and nursing students, and the "Clinical Practice" course, taken by medical students, which emphasizes translation of basic knowledge into practical clinical skills. Both courses include components that focus on nutrition. The foundation lecture series in nutrition during the "Clinical Practice" course enhances and integrates basic and clinical science teaching in nutrition and builds on the content introduced in the SBPMD course. The nutrition lecture series in the latter course is divided into three parts, with lectures 1 and 2 devoted to nutrition in the life cycle, lecture 3 providing nutrition assessment skills, and lectures 4–7 addressing the role of nutrition in health promotion and disease prevention.

The second year includes a major course in pathophysiology of organ systems, a pharmacology course coordinated with topics in pathophysiology, a continuation of the "Clinical Practice" course, and a course in "Physical Diagnosis." Each course, taken by all students, provides opportunities for further integration and building of the nutrition knowledge base and skills.

During the third undergraduate year, as students rotate through the clinical clerkships, they are exposed to nutrition-related issues relevant to patient care. During the final year, undergraduates complete their clinical rotations, and all students take one of three 4-week "selective" courses ("Advanced Pathophysiology," "Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics," "Laboratory Medicine"). A weekly "Back to the Classroom" seminar is a component of each selective. These sessions reinforce and integrate the theoretical knowledge base obtained during the first two years with the clinical skills obtained in the third and fourth year rotations. The sessions include issues relevant to nutrition.

Third- and fourth-year students are offered clinical electives in several areas, including one month in the Premature and Perinatal Neonatal Nursery and the Intensive Care Unit at Presbyterian Hospital, and one month in the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital. Students training in this center gain expertise in understanding the physiological changes in the obese patient and learn the methods of managing the patient both inside and outside the hospital. In all of these centers the students receive conference instruction and maintain contact with patients.

Special elective programs are offered to medical and dental students in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and to a limited number of students from other medical schools.

The Institute is represented in several areas of the Medical School that teach the principles and methods of management in the oral and parenteral feeding of the infants, children, and adults.

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