Medical students learning dysphagia and medical humanities… in a kitchen

Abstract

'Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.' – Hippocrates (400 BC) Besides nutrition, the lived 'dining experience' is also instrumental to older patients' psychological wellbeing.

In Hong Kong, the prevalence of dysphagia in older adults has been shown to be as high as 57.1% in aged care facilities. (Pu et al., 2017) Dysphagia can be a result of stroke, dementia, head and neck cancer, or the normal ageing process. Swallowing difficulties present additional challenges to patient care such as malnutrition, dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, unpleasant mealtime experience. It is imperative for medical students to develop insight into psychological wellbeing of this unique patient group.

Culinary medicine is a trending field of medicine that combines sciences and culinary arts to create food that promote that is delicious, appealing, and promotes wellness. A U.S. study involving 627 medical students reported that a hands-on cooking and nutrition elective at a teaching kitchen outperformed didactic lectures in improving student attitudes and competencies in counselling patients on nutrition. (Monlezun et al, 2015)

In collaboration with an award-winning local social enterprise The Project Futurus, we piloted a culinary medicine workshop in the medical humanities curriculum in a medical school in Hong Kong. It is hoped that this novel pedagogy could raise medical student's interest in learning about dysphagia and in working with older patients.