The food diary as a pedagogical strategy in undergraduate nursing nutrition education: A student evaluation.

Background: Few studies have evaluated educational nutrition activities in undergraduate nursing, and none have published how the established food assessment method, the food diary, can be used as a pedagogical method in this context.

Objective: To describe undergraduate nursing students' learning outcomes of basic nutrition and important elements for their learning after conducting a one-day food record with a subsequent seminar (henceforth: "the food diary method").

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Undergraduate nursing program in Sweden.

Participants: 161 students.

Methods: Participants conducted a one-day food record by documenting their food intake and calculating the nutritional values. After completion, students participated in a seminar, and an evaluative questionnaire was distributed at the end. The questionnaires contained both numerical and free-text questions.

Results: Of 162 students attending the seminar, all but one completed the questionnaire (response rate: 99%). The highest rated learning outcome, on the 5-point Likert scale, was an increased understanding for the nutritional recommendations (Median, M = 5). The highest rated educational aspects were that they compared their records with the nutritional recommendations (M = 5), and the calculations of nutritional values of their records (M = 5). Participants also indicated that they gained information that would be useful for them as practicing nurses (M = 5).

Conclusions: Overall, the food diary method appeared to be a feasible method in educating and engaging undergraduate nursing students in the field of basic nutrition. These findings support results from previous studies in this area, such that educational nutrition activities that utilize active, experiential, and social learning strategies were appreciated by the students.