Lifestyle Medicine Bootcamp Improves Medical Student Understanding,Confidence,and Intent in Clerkships

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of a brief lifestyle medicine (LM) and motivational interviewing (MI) workshop on medical students’ understanding, confidence, and intent to apply LM principles during clinical rotations. In a pre/post study with delayed follow-up, second-year medical students at a U.S. medical school participated in a 3-hour LM+MI workshop embedded in a transition-to-clerkship course. Of 186 eligible students, 52 completed the baseline survey, 41 the immediate post-workshop survey, and 16 the 12-week follow-up. Surveys assessed self-reported LM understanding, MI familiarity, confidence in lifestyle assessment and goal-setting, and intent to apply LM in practice using Likert-scale items and open-ended feedback. Changes over time were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired comparisons. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in LM understanding, MI familiarity, and confidence in lifestyle assessment and goal-setting following the workshop (P < 0.05), with many gains maintained at 12 weeks. Qualitative feedback supported these findings and highlighted barriers to implementation, including time constraints and anticipated patient receptivity. Overall, a brief LM+MI workshop significantly improved medical students’ readiness to provide lifestyle counseling, with sustained gains over 12 weeks, suggesting that integrating focused LM training into medical education may strengthen future physicians’ capacity to deliver lifestyle-based care.