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Medical Nutrition Therapy I


Course Description

Nutrition practice in the clinical setting using the nutrition care process. Emphasis on enteral and parenteral nutrition, gastrointestinal disease.

Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will complete two advanced patient case studies to include a current research literature review describing disease state, nutrition implications of disease, patient nutrition assessment and appropriately designed nutrition intervention. Graduate students will demonstrate use of evidence-based guidelines to make practice decisions which is a required competency in dietetics practice. Students will present case studies to the class in a 30-minute presentation.


Athena Title

Medical Nutrition Therapy I


Undergraduate Pre or Corequisite

NUTR 4100/6100


Semester Course Offered

Offered fall


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Course Objectives

Following completion of the course, the student: will describe the nutrition care process and will demonstrate the ability to: 1) conduct a nutrition screening and assessment; 2) interpret dietary intake, body composition, laboratory values, medical history and socioeconomic factors; 3) select an appropriate nutrition diagnosis; 4) plan intervention, monitoring and evaluation; and 5) use appropriate methods of documentation. Case studies will be used to evaluate this objective. will be able to describe health care delivery systems in acute and long-term care facilities and discuss the role of the dietitian and of other health care team members in these systems. will demonstrate knowledge of pathophysiology and medical nutrition therapy for various disease states. will be able to discuss indications for use of enteral and parenteral nutrition, describe enteral formulas, and accurately calculate enteral and parenteral formulations for patient case scenarios.


Topical Outline

Health Care Systems: Role of the dietitian in the health care team 1. the health care and dietetic teams 2. professional organizations 3. registration and licensing Nutrition Care Process: Nutrition Screening & Assessment 1. medical and social histories, functional status 2. dietary intake assessment 3. anthropometric measurements 4. laboratory parameters 5. nutritionally focused physical assessment 6. drug-nutrient interactions Nutrition Care Process: Nutrition Diagnosis, Intervention and Monitoring/Evaluation Using Evidence-based Guidelines Nutrition Care Documentation Medical nutrition therapy for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract Bone health Introduction to enteral and parenteral nutrition


Syllabus