Education Activities
As elsewhere, family physicians in Türkiye are in continuing need for general knowledge and proper updates. This is, perhaps, to be expected as the curriculum of medical students and other healthcare professionals is already highly intensive. However, it is important that the potential of balanced nutrition to reduce disease risk and contribute to the maintenance of good health as well as the positive effect on chronic disease management is understood by those who have the potential to make a positive difference. In 2022 the Sabri Ülker Food Research Institute Foundation teamed up with the Turkish Federation of Family Physicians Associations (AHEF) to implement a programme of nutrition education for family physicians.
As a first step an online survey was conducted to identify areas where family physicians most feel the lack of knowledge. Based on the feedback of 1,300 respondents, Professor Serhat Ünal MD of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine and Professor F. Nur Baran Aksakal MD of Gazi University Faculty of Medicine took the lead in developing a programme which has now been the subject of eight online lectures and interactive sessions of two hours. The following subjects have been covered:
A total of some 20,000 family physicians have now followed the sessions. Initial feedback has been consistently excellent. Measuring the long term impact of this programme will, as ever, provide a difficult challenge. However, a questionnaire has been prepared to be sent to a sample of attendees in order to receive their long-term feedback on the programme.
