KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
By the end of the course, students will gain knowledge and ability to understand the fundamental concepts and principles of patient nutritional care, the most recent definitions of malnutritions, cachexia and sarcopenia and their relevance in prognostic terms. They will know the principles regarding main nutritional evaluation techniques, management and monitoring of the patient, the principles of energy-nutritional balance, the main changes in nutritional requirements during diseases as well as indications and characteristics of nutritional therapy strategies (diet and artificial nutrition). They will also possess knowledge for pursuing an evidence-based approach to nutrition.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course, students, within nursing skills, will be able to:
- recognize the main signs and symptoms of malnutrition and their clinical relevance;
- participate in the nutritional assessment of the patient;
- understand/participate in the definition and application of the main therapeutic-nutritional interventions
- know and avoid main clinical errors and risk factors in the field of artificial nutrition
- recognize and manage the main complications of artificial nutrition
- collaborate with other professionals operating in the nutritional field
MAKING JUDGMENTS
At the end of the course, students will have to demonstrate that they have not only acquired knowledge and concepts, but also that they are able to provide appropriate judgments, even transversally among acquired skills.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
At the end of the course, students must be able to express themselves and argue appropriately by using the acquired specific terminology.
LEARNING SKILLS
At the end of the course, students will have the necessary knowledge to be able to understand the relevance and degree of reliability of information sources relating to nutrition, as well as to update their knowledge and skills with a high degree of autonomy. They must also be able to apply the acquired learning methods in professional contexts and in further education.

For a better understanding of the topics covered in this teaching, students should have basic knowledge in Biochemistry, Physiology and Dietetics.

1.The nutritional aspect of patient care 2.Evaluation of Nutritional Status 3.Nutritional therapy: nutritional needs, dietary therapy 4.Nutritional therapy: needs in artificial nutrition, enteral nutrition 5.Nutritional therapy: parenteral nutrition 6.The management of artificial nutrition: indications and nutritional program, metabolic complications, monitoring, the role of the nutritional team, home artificial nutrition. Evidence-based nutrition.

Lecture presentations and main scientific publications cited will be made available to students. Recommended reference material: •R. Canella, Scienza della Nutrizione, EdiErmes •Width, The essential pocket guide for Clinical Nutrition •Corsi, linee guida e pubblicazioni delle società scientifiche SINPE e ESPEN

The nutritional aspect in patient care:
-Nutrition as a need: clinical-care relevance and prognostic implications
-Malnutrition (evolution of a concept; malnutrition due to deficiency and excess, most recent definitions and diagnostic criteria, the case of sarcopenic obesity)
-Importance of an evidence-based approach: the guidelines

Practical assessment of nutritional status:
-Questionnaires, screening (NRS 2002, MUST, MNA)
-Plasma markers of nutritional status
-Body mass and composition: anthropometric indices and markers (body weight, BMI, circumference measurements, calf-circumference, skinfold measurements, notes on derived indices); instrumental body composition measurements (BIA, DXA, CT).
-Notes on the measurement of basal metabolism

Nutritional therapy:

-Physiological nutritional requirements and their changes in specific conditions and diseases
-Dietary therapy: the main special diets, food supplements, foods for special medical use, gels
-Artificial nutrition - types and formulations, characteristics, main indications, management and side effects of:
oEnteral nutrition and related access routes (SNG, SNJ, PEG, PEJ)
oParenteral nutrition and related access routes (central, PICC, CVC, Port-a-cath, peripheral)
-The nutritional program and patient monitoring
-Integrated work in the nutritional team

Interactive frontal lessons with the aid of projections of Power Point files prepared by the teacher.

Power Point presentations relating to each lesson, additional cited reference materials, as well as lesson recordings, can be found on the Microsoft Teams platform.

Written test consisting of 21 multiple choice questions, with 4 options of which only one is correct. Test duration: 40 minutes. The final grade is expressed in thirtieths according to the following criteria: 1.5 points for each correct multiple answer.
The questionnaires are designed to verify, in relation to the clinical nutrition topics of nursing relevance covered during the lessons:
1) direct learning of taught concepts (identification of the correct answer)
2) robustness of preparation with regard to the application of knowledge, also in order to avoid errors in the clinical setting (exclusion of wrong answers containing implications in terms of clinical risk)
3) ability to know how to use in a transversal manner acquired knowledge and skills (applying logics while comparing different options)

This teaching deals with topics closely related to one or more objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development