NUTRITION 606 - PHYSIOLOGY of CLINICAL NUTRITION

Instructor: Dr. Donna Beshgetoor

Office: ENS 120

Office phone: 594-1918

Office hours: Wed. 2-4 or by appointment

Text: Required readings assigned weekly from current nutritional literature.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the end of this course, students will be able to:

1) Describe conditions predisposing to nutritional risk.

2) Discuss the pathophysiology of varied disease conditions.

3) Describe current nutritional therapies including rationale, principles and potential applications.

4) Discuss methods of clinically-focused nutritional research, giving advantages and limitations of each.

5) Design a research study relevant to current issues in clinical nutrition.

PREREQUISITES: Medical Nutrition Therapy (Nutr. 406). Recommended prerequisites: Advanced biochemistry and physiology.

ATTENDANCE: It is in the best interest of the student to attend class. Participation in weekly class sessions is an integral part of the course experience. Class attendance and participation also accounts for a percentage of the student’s grade.

COURSE EVALUATION: Student grades will be based on the following:

Class Participation and Journal Article Summaries: Students will be required to write a short summary of articles assigned for discussion in class. The summary will be due at the beginning of each class period during which the article will be discussed. All students will be expected to participate in weekly discussions.

Class Presentations: Each student will be responsible for leading 2 discussions of nutritional journal articles he/she chooses (with instructor approval). Discussions should include a brief review of relevant literature, a critique of the study design and methodology, a summary and discussion of the results (including the potential contribution of the research to the field) and a discussion of follow-up research ideas.

Research Proposal: Each student write a research “grant” proposing funding for a specific, hypothesis-driven, original research project in clinical nutrition. The grant proposal should include the following: review of the literature (background of what has previously been done in this area), rationale for the proposed study, specific aims, hypothesis and research design. (For this project, we’ll assume that you won the research lotto; therefore, a budget will not be necessary.) Proposals will be presented in class. A written copy of your proposal is due the Friday prior to your presentation.

COURSE EVALUATION:

Article Summaries: 100 pt. (20 pt. each)

Class presentations: 100 pt. (50 pt. each)

Research Proposal: 100 pt.

Class Attendance and Participation: 100 pt.

Total: 400 pt.

Grading Scale: A 92.5-100%

A- 89.5-92.4%

B+ 87.5-89.4%

B 82.5-87.4%

B- 79.5-82.4%

C+ 77.5-79.4%

C 72.5-77.4%

C- 70.0-72.4%