Don't Wait to Talk about Weight: A 2-Hour Interactive Curriculum Improves Medical Student Skills with Weight Management.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this curriculum was to increase medical students' knowledge of obesity medicine as well as their comfort with and confidence in communication skills related to weight management by using a standardized patient (SP) encounter.

METHODS

We developed and evaluated a two-part weight management curriculum that used a synchronous interactive virtual didactic along with a formative SP session to teach communication skills related to obesity medicine. The didactic reviewed weight stigma and bias, diagnosis, and management of obesity along with foundational skills including how to take a complete weight history and counsel on SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goal setting. The following week, each student participated in a 10-minute SP encounter to practice these skills, with 5 minutes of formative feedback. The curriculum was incorporated into the adult outpatient medicine clerkship at a large academic medical center. The historical control group included 32 clerkship students, and the intervention group included 61 clerkship students. We evaluated medical student comfort, confidence, and knowledge with weight management using pre/postsurveys. We evaluated medical student communication skills using an objective structured clinical examination.

RESULTS

Comfort with, confidence in, and knowledge of weight management concepts increased after participation in this curriculum. Students who participated in the curriculum performed better on a weight management objective-structured clinical examination, particularly in the areas of obtaining a complete weight history and using shared decision making.

CONCLUSIONS

This curriculum was effective at increasing medical student comfort with, confidence in, and knowledge of foundational weight management concepts in addition to their skills.