Functional Nutrition Module Learning Outcomes

Functional Nutrition: Foundations | Term 1

Introduction to Research and Evidence-Based Practice for Nutritional Therapy  

(3 CEU hours) - Zrinka Glavas, MEd, MSc

1. Practice locating high-quality nutrition research studies as the basis for evidenced-based practice.

Fundamentals of Nutrition  

(24 CEU hours) - Karen Davis, MS, CNS®

1. Advise and educate clients regarding the components of a whole-foods, health-promoting diet.
2. Educate clients on the physiological and biochemical need for macro- and micronutrients.
3. Address client questions and inform them of various “popular/common” diets.
4. Explain to clients the appropriate role of supplementation in nutritional plans.

Bioscience of Nutrition  

(30 CEU hours) - Brandy Cummings, MS, CN, NC, CKNS, BCHN, CGP

1. Use appropriate anatomic, physiologic, and biochemical terminology with clients and healthcare professionals.
2. Convey the metabolic mechanisms of macro- and micronutrients to clients.
3. Explain to clients their bio-individually unique nutritional needs.

Culinary Nutrition  

(12 CEU hours) – Kira Freed, MEd, MScN

1. Educate clients on choosing the healthiest ingredients for their meals/meal plans.
2. Teach clients how to select, prepare, and store whole foods to optimize nutritional benefits.
3. Create local, sustainable, and organic menu and meal plans when applicable.

Functional Nutrition: Essentials | Term 2

Culinary Nutrition  II 

(6 CEU hours) – Kira Freed, MEd, MScN

1. Create whole-food, health-promoting therapeutic menu plans with attention to special diets and dietary preferences.
2. Create meals and/or assist clients, restaurants, and businesses in cooking techniques to create healthy and flavorful meals/ menus.

Functional Nutritional Assessment  

(21 CEU hours) –  Karen Davis, MS, CNS® and Brandy Cummings, MS, CN, NC, CKNS, BCHN, CGP

1. Complete a new client intake and assessment.
2. Perform basic client record keeping and client note-taking.
3. Practice within your state-defined functional nutritionist scope of practice.
4. Utilize available in-office, scope-compliant assessment tools.
5. Incorporate common test findings, including functional blood, stool, saliva, and urine.

Nutritional Counseling Skills  

(21 CEU hours) – Courtney Cronk, MA, FNTP, RYT-200

1. Establish and maintain professional relationships with clients.
2. Assess client readiness and motivations for behavioral change.
3. Support client change efforts and mitigate for resistances to change.
4. Understand dynamics of cross-cultural communications.
5. Understand professional standards.

Intro to Herbal Medicine 

(12 CEU hours) – Kristin Henningsen, MS, RH (AHG), E-RYT, IYT

1. Perform basic herbal assessments of clients and consider educating clients at the basic level of herbal interventions.
2. Identify additional education opportunities to become an accomplished and advanced practitioner.

Functional Nutrition: Your Practice | Term 3

Holistic Nutritional Therapy 

(51 CEU hours) – Zrinka Glavas, MEd, MSc, Brandy Cummings, MS, CN, NC, CKNS, BCHN, CGP, and Vileka Fisher, ND, MS

1. Assist clients in understanding their unique nutritional needs and the role of nutrition in overall health, vitality, wellness, development, and sustainability.
2. Build an understanding of your vital role as a primary Educator of clients regarding the role of food as medicine.
3. Develop your role as a Coach helping clients develop their own unique nutritional plans and health goals.
4. Through education and research, help clients identify potential interactions between nutrients, herbs, and prescribed medical therapies.
5. Understand the multitude of medical and functional diet approaches for clients with chronic health challenges and how these medically prescribed diets can be adjusted to bring in more holistic/bio-individual balance.

Research and Evidence-Based Practice for Nutritional Therapy 

9 CEU hours) - Zrinka Glavas, MEd, MSc

1. Appraise and utilize high-quality nutrition research studies as the basis for evidenced-based practice.

Functional Nutrition: Perspectives | Term 4

Nutrition in the Life Cycles  

(36 CEU hours) – Vileka Fisher, ND, MS and Melinda Staehling, MS, CPT

Nutrition through the Childbearing Years:

1. Understand the basics of the physical and physiologic processes in mother and father that take place from preconception to birth including post-partum and lactation.
2. Understand the macro- and micro nutritional needs for both parents and fetal development throughout the childbearing stages.
3. Develop the tools to educate people on optimal dietary, nutritional, and lifestyle choices throughout each stage.

Child/Adolescent Stage:

1. Explain connections between early nutrition and food preferences and lifelong health status.
2. Connect how obesity contributes to health problems for children and adolescents.
3. Understand how to estimate the energy requirements of children and adolescents.
4. Use the CDC growth charts to monitor growth in children and adolescents.
5. Identify common nutrition disorders and at-risk eating behaviors in children and adolescents.
6. Understand issues related to food insecurity and hunger in our communities and how we can help as professionals.
7. Describe how psychosocial developmental phases influence how teens relate to information about nutrition.

Active Adult Stage:

1. Educate clients on why certain macro and micronutrients are critical for exercise performance and recovery.
2. Address client questions regarding ergogenic aids and popular sports nutrition supplements.
3. Explain to clients the critical role hydration plays in physical activity.
4. Evaluate a client’s individual nutrient needs based on the type of physical activity they are engaging in.

Older Adult/Later Years Stage:

1. Explain connections between nutrition and health status in older adulthood.
2. Understand the connections between social support and nutrition in older adulthood.
3. Understand how to estimate the energy requirements older adolescents.
4. Identify common nutrition disorders in older adults.
5. Learn how to optimize nutrition to prevent and treat chronic conditions in older adults.

Capstone

(hours vary) – On own with optional Mentoring sessions with Brandy Cummings, MS, CN, NC, CKNS, BCHN, CGP, Zrinka Glavas, MEd, MSc and Melinda Staehling, MS, CPT 

1. Develop your professional nutritionist approach to assessment and intake of new clients.
2. Recognize the client’s functional imbalances.
3. Interpret the educational and coaching needs of a client.
4. Design a nutritional and lifestyle educational and guidance plan.
5. Implement the plan.
6. Interface with an integrative healthcare team.

Business and Practice Considerations  

(9 CEU hours) – Dr. Sean Harry

1. Create a plan for operating a successful Functional Nutrition Therapy practice.
2. Select a business entity and start a nutrition practice.
3. Identify key customers.
4. Outline a marketing strategy.
5. Design a revenue model for your practice.
6. Determine start-up costs and basic budget expectations.
7. Put people and processes in place to grow a practice.
8. Create an Action Plan for the first 12 months of your business.