New nutritional science opportunity at UK helps expand medical students’ education
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 2, 2025) — Two students at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine have had unique learning and training opportunities thanks to generous contributions to a new gift account.
Sara Police, Ph.D., director of Nutritional Sciences Education, is managing the gifted funds. They’ve allowed Police to work closely with medical students Elizabeth McCauley and Kiki Samsel.
“I am deeply grateful to the donors who recognize the importance of nutrition in preventing disease risk and promoting healthy outcomes. Their generous contributions will be used to build out nutrition education for medical students at the University of Kentucky,” said Police.
With this support, the team has attended conventions, worked with researchers and gained curricular design and instruction skills while deepening their own nutrition knowledge.
Although Police has developed other courses in nutritional sciences, she said this project has been unique.
“We’ve been contacting clinicians, researchers and scientists who are at the cutting edge of their field,” Police said. “Typically, when I’ve built a course before, I’ve leaned on publications or textbooks that are already out there. For this course, the bulk of new content is coming from practitioners active in this space — we’re going straight to the source.”
Nationally, there is a documented need for additional nutrition education for medical students, Police said, which is also reflected at UK.
Samsel, a current M.D. candidate at UK, has seen firsthand the value of nutritional sciences education and conversations for medical students. She said this course aims to ask “how we can leverage nutrition alongside medicine” not only at the university, but throughout the Commonwealth.
“Which is what UK is all about — improving the health of Kentucky and beyond,” said Samsel.
The goal of the course is to prepare medical students to be confident care providers, capable of having conversations with patients regarding nutritional health.
“We want to include not only what nutrition recommendations to make but how to have those conversations with patients,” McCauley said. “One thing I hope really shines through the course, is equipping students with feeling confident having these conversations.”
Samsel agreed, adding that the class could help reduce the stigma when addressing nutrition-related health issues.
“Honestly, I think it will help me feel more confident initiating the conversation around nutrition with my patients, particularly those with excess body fat or obesity, just taking the stigma away from it and feeling confident initiating those conversations,” Samsel said.
McCauley noticed during her first year of medical school how often nutrition plays a role in treatment for a variety of conditions, from diabetes to hypertension to mental health.
“But we aren’t always equipped to have those conversations,” she said. “I think having a targeted nutrition elective is really going to bridge that gap for medical students.”
For more information on Nutrional Sciences Education, contact Sara.Police@uky.edu.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.