Evaluation of Nutrition Education in Colleges of Pharmacy in the U.S.

Background: Morbidity and mortality errors assocated with specialized nutrition preparation and dispensing have increased. Questions have been raised concerning the provision of nutrition education in the schools of pharmacy curriculums and whether appropriate information is being conveyed. No studies have been done in the last 10 years that address how colleges of pharmacy are now incorporating nutrition education into their PharmD curriculum. Study objective: To evaluate what aspects of nutrition education colleges of pharmacy are incorporating into their curriculum and to what extent. Methods: The study objective will be met using a survey of colleges of pharmacy in the United States. The survey will be posted online and a link will be sent via e-mail to the colleges of pharmacy. The survey will include questions that measure the extent those concepts of nutrition, nutrition in disease, enteral and parenteral nutrition and USP 797 are taught in the curriculum. The data collected from the survey will be predominantly descriptive in nature. The scores from each section will be added to give an overall estimate of nutrition education practices. Differences will be compared based on location, size of program, and type of setting it is taught in (core curriculum, elective, etc). Significance: Learning what nutrition education is being delivered to students in schools of pharmacy will help identify if and where greater nutrition education may be delivered