Nutrition and cancer education: Ten years of progress

The Nutrition Education and Research Program at the University of Nevada Sc hool of Medicine was awarded two separate NIH/NCI R25 cancer education gran ts over a ten-year period. With this support, a four-year longitudinal nutr ition curriculum was implemented, including the required 20-hour freshman M edical Nutrition Course, junior and senior nutrition electives, and a senio r assignment in nutrition and cancer during the rural rotation with faculty preceptors. Funding has also supported nutrition integration into the basi c science courses, patient care courses, and specialty clerkships. A unique nutrition fellowship for medical students who specialize in nutrition duri ng their four years of training and graduate with special Qualifications in Nutrition (SQIN) has also been instituted. The curriculum reflects a longi tudinal, interdisciplinary, but flexible, integration of nutrition into an already crowded medical school.