Clinical Nutrition

 

• Patient Nutrition Care
  Specialized medical nutrition therapy is provided by clinical dietitians to:
   
  
• Inpatient Units
  All services, including adult and pediatric critical care, surgery, cardiology, neurology, oncology, psychiatry, transplantation, pediatrics, neonatal care and maternity medicine. Other practice areas include nutrition management in bariatric surgery, dialysis, heart failure program, inherited metabolic disease program, pediatric and adolescent weight management program, epilepsy program and smoking cessation program and radiation oncology.
  

• Ambulatory Services
  ​​​​​Clinical dietitians receive patients at the Dietitians Clinics, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Unit, Pediatric and Adolescent Weight Control Program, , Inherited Metabolic Diseases Program, Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) Outpatient Service, Family Medicine Practice Clinics, Hemodialysis Unit, Heart Failure Program,  Smoking Cessation Program, Radiation Oncology and the Outpatient Department (OPD) Clinics (diabetes, obstetrics and gynecology, and surgery).

• Training and Education
  
  
• Dietetic Practicum
  This is a nine-month training program. It qualifies BS Nutrition and Dietetics students of the AUB Coordinated Program in Dietetics to become Registered Dietitians at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics following the program’s accreditation.
  
  
• International Clinical Nutrition Training Program
  Individualized training experience is offered to dietitians who have been educated and are working outside Lebanon. The training is tailored to the individual's interests, needs and goals. It aims to develop a current area of practice or acquire a new area of specialization. The length of the experience will be dependent on the learning objectives.
  
  Areas of clinical nutrition practice that candidates can request training in are: nutrition support, renal nutrition, diabetes, bone marrow transplantation, pediatrics, cardiology, maternity, oncology and surgery including bariatric surgery.
  
  Interested candidates submit an application form to the External Medical Affairs Office. Acceptance is based on review of academic preparation and past work experience.
  
  
• Staff Education
  This includes formal training of Med IV students in hospital diets and nutrition assessment, as well as teaching residents in family medicine about nutrition counseling during their community rotation and training pediatric residents during their elective pediatric GI nutrition rotation.
  
  Clinical dietitians also provide housestaff and nursing staff with educational sessions. They are aimed towards improved understanding of specialized nutrition for better management of patient nutrition care. Sessions address cardiology as well as nutrition support in critical care units.

• Other Education Activities 
  Dietitians present at national and international conferences, workshops, seminars, and courses.

Furthermore, in 2014 the department launched the Lebanese International Nutrition Conference (LINC) as an annual platform by which dietitians as well as professionals from multiple health disciplines link with each other to share knowledge and experience for the advancement of nutrition in health and disease in Lebanon and the region, through conferences and workshops​.​