[Training in nutrition for specialists in pediatrics]

Training in nutrition does not seem a priority in postgraduate programs in Pediatrics; rotations in Nutrition units have been, at the most, electives. We hereby report our teaching experience with respect to 51 residents in Pediatrics that stayed for 4 to 6 weeks at the Nutrition Unit in the years 1981 to 1987. A diagnostic test of 40 multiple choice questions was applied the first day of work at the Nutrition Unit; the same subjects were evaluated at the end of their stay, by means of a short essay test, designed to evaluate the candidate's proficiency in problem solving. Overall results revealed that 17% of residents answered correctly 70% or more of the questions in the diagnostic test, proportion that improved to 45% of residents in the final test. However, when we studied the performance of each subject with himself we were surprised by the fact that 16 residents (31%) had impaired their initial scores. Tentative explanations for this observation could be: lack of interest for this subspeciality as compared to others (intensive care, for instance), poor studiousness, high requirements of the tests applied, etc. Whichever might be the case, we think that, given both the development of new techniques of nutritional support (not necessarily intensive) and the high number of moderate and severely malnourished children under 6 years of age in Chile, training in Nutrition should be emphasized.