Education and Training
Education
The Nutrition Center provides innovative learning opportunities for students, health professionals, and community members. Staff members use various media formats and interactive presentation styles to promote evidence-based nutrition/wellness messages. We teach classes for University of Iowa students, work with school districts to integrate nutrition into their curriculums, offer continuing education opportunities for health professionals, and write articles on a variety of health related issues.
Nutrition Concentration
The nutrition concentration program is designed for students interested in studying the role of nutrition in maintaining wellness and in development of diseases. Training opportunities include:
- Nutrition policy
- Nutrition assessment of environment and individuals
- Development of evidence-based nutrition interventions
- Implementation and evaluation of interventions
- Skills in nutrition counseling
- Behavior modification
- Worksite wellness
Some agencies and organizations that hire nutritional epidemiology graduates are:
- University Departments of Epidemiology or Nutrition
- Centers for Disease Control
- National Center for Health Statistics
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Departments of Public Health
- Research Institutes
- Worksite wellness programs
- Insurance companies
- Community initiatives
- Public policy centers
Training
The Nutrition Center is committed to training health care professionals in best practices for optimizing health outcomes by enhancing motivation for healthful lifestyle change. We offer workshops in advanced counseling skills as well as Motivational Interviewing. Motivational Interviewing as defined by Rollnick and Miller in 2009 is "a person-centered method of guiding to strengthen motivation for change." Examples of projects and organizations for which Nutrition Center staff have provided a series of Motivational Interviewing trainings include the:
- American Dietetic Association Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina Medical Nutrition Therapy Cost/Utilization Study
- Carle Foundation Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration Project
- College of Medicine Multidisciplinary Experience
- Dial a Dietitian Webinar Series for Canadian Call Center Dietitians
- Iowa City/Cedar Rapids, Iowa Free Medical Clinics
- Study of motivational interviewing as an intervention for women coping with intimate partner violence
- Study of parent-based intervention to increase safe teen driving
- Purposeful Eating Corporate Wellness program
The Nutrition Center is currently assisting Dr. Kenneth Resnicow with teaching Motivational Interviewing to pediatricians, nurse practitioners and registered dietitians in his NIH-funded multi-center study, Brief Motivational Interviewing to Reduce Body Mass Index (BMi2).
The Nutrition Center welcomes the opportunity to provide Motivational Interviewing workshops to interested businesses and organizations.