Wellness, Integrative Medicine and Nutrition - Requirements for Completion

Overview

To successfully earn their Certificate of Distinction in Wellness, Integrative Medicine and Nutrition, participating students must complete the following:

Educational Sessions

• Students must attend a minimum of 12 seminars over the course of four years. These seminars will be presented across a two-year cycle.
• Students must complete a four-week elective during their four year in culinary medicine or alternatively a four-week elective in integrative medicine (offered by U of A College of Medicine – Tucson).
• Students must participate, along with Culinary Medicine and Integrative Preventive Medicine Interest Groups, in planning and implementing a series of lectures, panels and other activities focused on nutrition, wellness and integrative medicine during the first two years of medical school.
• Students must participate in public health advocacy with past and current state legislators and experts in the field to learn about policies that impact health. Students must participate in at least 10 hours of advocacy over the course of four years.

Community Engagement

• Students must complete a total of 60 hours of the Certificate of Distinction-approved service-learning activities over the course of four years. Examples include shared medical visits at integrative medicine clinical sites, health education sessions in various community settings — including schools and community centers, the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market Health Education and Cooking Demonstration or the Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix Food Pantry. This requirement must be completed by April 1 of the student's fourth year.

Patient Care

• Students must develop a minimum of four clinical case studies designed for future use based on bedside experiences during their third and fourth year, reflecting on patient interviews and care plan experiences in nutrition, lifestyle interventions or the use of integrative medicine for patients.

Research

• Students must complete a Scholarly Project with a focus relevant to nutrition, wellness or integrative medicine. Alternatively, students may complete an alternative project with an emphasis on these topic areas upon approval by the Certificate of Distinction director.
• Alternative to the Scholarly Project:
  • As approved by the Certificate of Distinction director, students may consider completion of the following:
    • A nutrition, wellness or integrative medicine quality improvement project.
    • A community needs assessment related to food insecurity and diet-sensitive disease. 
    • A systematic review submitted for publication.
    • An approved nutrition, wellness or integrative medicine service-learning project, completion of the project and the submission of a statement of outcomes related to the project.
    • Writing of a grant application and providing oversight for fund utilization.

Summary of Requirements