Nutrition education was related by (Sapp and Jensen, 1997) to change people's habit with respect to their level of age, but was said not to be enough for dietary change (Hendrie et al., 2008). Levy et al. (1993) declares that the knowledge of nutrition is determined by ones educational level, which was supported by (Bandura, 1986) where he accepted that knowledge is needed to turn around people's ways and action and is very important in influencing dietary behaviour. Worsley (2002) also claimed that reaction to attitudinal changes may be different from the acquired knowledge of nutrition due to the way the messages is understood and utilised by the populace. Knowledge of nutrition is sighted as a fundamental component of nursing educational career, which is always incorporated into their school programme (La Trobe University, 2003).Schaller and James (2005) claimed that majority of nurses that are still in school are tutored about clinical nutrition in the perspective of health in general, by integrating public health nutrition in its totality, that is pertaining to health promotion and prevention. Basically, it is believed that being aware of the essential dietary concepts is one of the most crucial training student nurses should undergo to create an atmosphere of excellent curative goals and good dietary counselling (Schaller and James, 2005). This idea of training nurses in nutrition is also supported by the registered body in charge of the diet of patient in the United State (American Dietetic Association, 1998). Wynder and Andres (1994) also declared that nutrition is refer to as a major manageable risk factor that could have an impact on a patient wellbeing, this is why its role is very crucial in health promotion and eradication of disease. Bearing in mind that it is the sole job of a nutritionist as well as a dietician to counsel patient on the necessary diet for healthy living, the nurses are not left behind in providing adequate nutrition education to patients and also to be familiar with the necessary danger associated with poor diet (Lindseth, 1990; Wilt et al., 1990; Gibbons et al., 2000). It was discovered by (LIndseth, 1990; Lindseth, 1994; Crogan et al., 2001) that imparting nutrition knowledge to student nurses at undergraduate level is quite inadequate while there is restriction in the update of nutrition knowledge practising registered nurses receive.
Nutrition education was claimed in recent studies to influence dietary habit which could be in form of reduction of cholesterol intake (Levy et al., 1993), buying nourishing and healthy food choices (Turrell and kavanagh, 2006), reduction of fatty food intake (Kristal et al., 1990), increase intake of fruit and vegetables (Van et al., 2008; Ball et al., 2006), and ample amount of reduction in weight (Klohe-lehman et al., 2006).
Temple (1994) pointed out that there are many research studies which shows a slight knowledge of nutrition among medical student in which he later concluded in another study that there is minute knowledge about the level of nutrition education among students in medical school and practicing health professionals (Temple, 1999). This view was supported by (Kushner, 1995; Mihalynuk et al., 2003) where they both emphasized that a lot of study carried out on medical practitioners' shows that there is lack of self-reliance in the fundamental diet therapy they give to patient, which was as a result of insufficient nutrition training they received when they were in the medical school. Mihalynuk et al. (2008) claimed that knowledge does not really envisage the capability of a general practitioner in nutrition counselling which is assumed to be the core of how doctors tackle any health promoting strategies and intervention, which was also proven from several researches that nutrition training boost student and general practitioners competency to associated patient care.
Starnek et al. (1997) found out that the training of nurses in lifelong care services about nutrition of the elderly was quite insufficient in one of his research and suggested that more attention should be given to improving nurses' knowledge about geriatrics nutrition. This view was supported by (Kowanko et al., 1999) where they gathered that several nurses lacked the comprehensive facts about how to care for their patient nutrition which was associated to lack of time and too much task to tackle at a time. They later suggested that sufficient knowledge about nutrition must be incorporated into the training of nurses for optimum care delivery. Crogan et al. (2001) also demonstrated in their study about the competencies of nurses' nutrition awareness in tackling protein energy malnutrition (PEM) among inhabitants in nursing home. They discovered that nurses lack a few skills in the way residents diet are being handled and they suggested that an educational seminar provision to all nurses can help to deal with the issue. A survey carried out by (Mowe et al., 2008) found out that an inadequate nutritional knowledge could lead to bad nutritional practice which can result into impediment and delay in patient discharge from hospital. Examining the nutrition knowledge of upcoming nurses will go a long way to design an excellent syllabus for them to uplift their present knowledge.
Aims
The aim of this study is to explore the level of understanding of nutrition within a university setting of nursing students.
Objectives
To explore student nurses understanding of nutrition.
To establish the level of awareness of nutrition among student nurses within the context of healthy eating both for themselves and its application to the patient they care for.
Method/Procedure
The study will be done among student nurses from the University of Ulster and a quantitative design approach will be employed. The study will commence around September 2010 and last until December 2010. Nutrition knowledge will be assessed using a validated common nutrition knowledge questionnaire (Hendrie et al., 2008).A sample of 250 University of Ulster nursing students aged 18 years old and above will self-administer a questionnaire and complete them inside the lecture theatre where they receive lectures. The students will not be permitted to take the questionnaires out of the lecture room for confidentiality reasons and no identifying characteristics will be included in the questionnaire .The questionnaire is sub-divided into four segments of 113 questions relating to information on nutrition. This include (Thirteen questions for nutritional recommendation, seventy question for nutrients sources, ten questions for different food items and twenty questions for food related ailment).The accurate answer for each segment will be summed up to give a segment score, while the four segment will be added together to confer a general knowledge mark out of 113 questions of nutrition knowledge. A mark that is high will reveal that there is increase nutrition knowledge in that subject.
The subjects will answer the nutrition question on a variety of diverse scales like 'more, same, less, don't know', 'yes, no, not sure', 'high, low, not sure,' 'agree, disagree, not sure' or an option of four diverse food choices.
Data Analysis
The data that will be collected will be coded in numerals and entered into the system. The score of each section of the knowledge will then be collated and calculated with the general total of the knowledge of nutrition mark achieved. All these unprocessed data will undergo analyses procedure by using the" statistical package for social sciences" (SPSS version 17.0). Descriptive statistics will be employed to analyse the demographic data.
Resources
The study will be self -funded and the help of the nursing students' course directors will be asked. This will be done to guarantee easy access to the student beforehand so as to avoid disrupting any of their lecture schedules.
