Letter for nutrition and fluid balance: UK Need for Nutrition Education Programme

Leach and colleagues' article reiterates the issues that the Need for Nutrition Education Programme (NNEdPro; www.nnedpro.org.uk; comprising doctors, dietitians, and other healthcare professionals) has been working on for more than five years. We strongly agree that a greater emphasis on nutrition and hydration education is needed among healthcare professionals, particularly tomorrow's doctors. As a multiprofessional group, we have approached this by designing, piloting, and implementing innovative nutrition training for medical students (NNEdPro Phase 1) and junior doctors (NNEdPro Phase 2) across the UK. In Phase 2, Nutrition Education and Leadership for Improved Clinical Outcomes (NELICO), we trained junior doctors from three NHS regions on the importance of nutrition and hydration.

Although Leach and colleagues highlighted a lack of interest among clinicians in this topic, we found that by raising the awareness of medical students and junior doctors we could motivate them to take action. In NELICO, we also provided training on change management and leadership, giving participants an opportunity to apply this to improving nutritional care in the hospital setting. They were supported to work in multidisciplinary teams to run hospital nutrition awareness weeks. The teams worked closely with dietitians and other staff involved in hospital nutrition.

We are pleased to see the development of nutrition curriculum recommendations by the medical royal colleges, to fill a crucial gap. Evidence from the work of NNEdPro to date suggests that such curriculum recommendations can be implemented effectively in medical schools and NHS settings. It is therefore timely for educational policy makers to bring these two ends together to improve nutritional care in our hospitals as well as in the community.