title: Nutrition training in medical and other health professional schools in West Africa: the need to improve current approaches and enhance training effectiveness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health professionals play a key role in the delivery of nutrition interventions. Improving the quality of nutrition training in health professional schools is vital for building the necessary human resource capacity to implement effective interventions for reducing malnutrition in West Africa. This study was undertaken to assess the current status of nutrition training in medical, nursing and midwifery schools in West Africa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from 127 training programs organized by 52 medical, nursing, and midwifery schools. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, we collected information on the content and distribution of nutrition instruction throughout the curriculum, the number of hours devoted to nutrition, the years of the curriculum in which nutrition was taught, and the prevailing teaching methods. Simple descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nutrition instruction occurred mostly during the first 2 years for the nursing (84%), midwifery (87%), and nursing assistant (77%) programs and clinical years in medical schools (64%). The total amount of time devoted to nutrition was on average 57, 56, 48, and 28 hours in the medical, nursing, midwifery, and nursing assistant programs, respectively. Nutrition instruction was mostly provided within the framework of a dedicated nutrition course in nursing (78%), midwifery (87%), and nursing assistant programs (100%), whereas it was mainly embedded in other courses in medical schools (46%). Training content was heavily weighted to basic nutrition in the nursing (69%), midwifery (77%), and nursing assistant (100%) programs, while it was oriented toward clinical practice in the medical programs (64%). For all the programs, there was little focus (<6 hours contact time) on public health nutrition. The teaching methods on nutrition training were mostly didactic in all the surveyed schools; however, we found an integrated model in some medical schools (12%). None of the surveyed institutions had a dedicated nutrition faculty. The majority (55%) of the respondents rated nutrition instruction in their institutions as insufficient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of our study reveal important gaps in current approaches to nutrition training in health professional schools in West Africa. Addressing these gaps is critical for the development of a skilled nutrition workforce in the region. Nutrition curricula that provide opportunities to obtain more insights about the basic principles of human nutrition and their application to public health and clinical practice are recommended.
authors.affiliation: UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa, Dakar, Senegal; West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso; rsodjinou@unicef.org; rsodjinou@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sodjinou
authors.affiliation: West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.
authors.forename: William K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Bosu
authors.affiliation: UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa, Dakar, Senegal.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fanou
authors.affiliation: UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa, Dakar, Senegal.
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Déart
authors.affiliation: UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa, Dakar, Senegal.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kupka
authors.affiliation: UNICEF Cameroon Country Office, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Félicité
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tchibindat
authors.affiliation: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Shawn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000354:Africa, Western; D003479:Curriculum; D006801:Humans; D008880:Midwifery / Q000193:education; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012579:Schools, Nursing / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: West Africa; capacity development; curriculum revision; health professional schools; nutrition; training
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