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Nutrition-Focused Physical Exam
with Dr. Sherryl Van Lare
An 8-week continuing education course for practitioners starting on June 2, 2024
16 NPCE credits
Improve your assessment skills with a deeper understanding of NFPE
Completing a thorough nutrition-focused physical exam helps us to gain a more complete understanding of a client's nutritional status.
We can observe physical signs that suggest nutritional deficiency, excess, or imbalance, and use the information we gather to provide personalized care plans for our clients.
Staying up-to-date with the latest evidence-based practices helps us identify and interpret signs of malnutrition, nutrient deficiencies, and more in a low-cost, easily repeatable process. This, in turn, helps us to develop personalized care plans using data that isn't always captured through dietary recall, lab tests, or a review of the client's history.
There's a big gap in the NFPE training many of us received
Not everything that's taught as NFPE is evidence-based.
Some physical findings are nonspecific and commonly misinterpreted.
It's also easy to mix up cause and effect. Sometimes a disease or condition causes a nutritional deficiency rather than the nutritional deficiency causing the disease or symptom.
And, have you ever mentioned an NFPE finding and the related potential nutrition imbalance only to be asked to explain more? It's important to be able to confidently explain these things to clients.
To effectively use NFPE in your practice, you'll need to:
- Accurately perform and interpret a nutrition-focused physical exam using evidence-based techniques
- Recognize the limitations of these assessments
- Differentiate physical signs of nutrient deficiencies, excesses, and imbalances from those caused by non-nutritional factors
- Correlate clinical symptoms with NFPE findings to make personalized nutritional interventions
- Monitor the effectiveness of nutritional interventions over time
Introducing: Nutrition-Focused Physical Exam Course with Dr. Sherryl Van Lare
This course offers a deep dive into how the NFPE can be leveraged to assess your clients' nutritional and functional status. You will gain invaluable skills in physical examination techniques, identifying deficiencies and imbalances, and understanding of underlying pathophysiology and biochemistry. We’ll explore why particular findings suggest nutrient imbalances and how to avoid misinterpreting NFPE findings.
NFPE Overview
NFPE basics, including why NFPE is important and how it can be effectively leveraged in all phases of nutrition care.
Global assessment
Learn how to make a comprehensive evaluation of overall health as related to nutrition.
head-to-Toe Assessment
Learn to assess hair/scalp, face, eyes, mouth, tongue, skin, fingernails, and more. Gait, antrophometrics, and vital signs are also covered.
integrating nFPE findings with overall assessment
How to approach a case when the intake looks adequate, but NFPE findings suggest otherwise
conducting NFPE via telehealth
How to adapt the NFPE when seeing clients virtually
charting and reports of finding
Tips and examples for how to document your NFPE findings and assessments
About Dr. Van Lare
As a nutritionist and educator, I value whole-person, client-centered, evidence-informed approaches to nutrition and integrative health and am always seeking ways to improve my clinical skills and empower clients.
The NFPE can allow us to detect imbalances early and to monitor progress. It can be very motivating for clients. Being endlessly curious about “why” and “how” is both my “superpower” and kryptonite, so I of course wanted to know more about the nutrition-focused physical exam (NFPE) findings.
I am excited to be able go beyond the surface with the NFPE and share research and clinical insights.
I have a Doctorate in Clinical Nutrition from Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) in Laurel, MD, an MS in Nutrition and Integrative Health from MUIH, a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia. I've been licensed as a nutritionist (LDN) in Maryland since 2017 and a CNS since 2016. My clinical focus areas are bone health, cognition, and anxiety. I'm a full-time instructor at MUIH, where I teach a graduate-level class on NFPE, as well as physiology, applied clinical nutrition, and more. I've also been an adjunct faculty member in the DCN program at UWS.
Nutrition-Focused Physical Exam: Details & Dates
This is an 8-week online course designed to help you complete and interpret a comprehensive nutrition-focused physical exam.
This course is for people who are already practicing and who have advanced clinical training. We will not be covering introductory anatomy or physiology, or how to take a medical history, and we will assume that participants have a background in nutrition. Please check the scope of practice and licensing regulations in your state to make sure that you are legally able to conduct a nutrition-focused physical exam prior to enrolling.
Next Start Date: TBD
Optional live sessions Thursdays from 12:30-1:30 pm ET
Dates: TBD. Please sign up to be notified when we run the course again!
Note that there will be a one-week break/catch-up week in the middle of the course. Live sessions will be recorded and posted within 24-48 hours.
Short lessons
Each week you'll get 2-3 video lectures (approx. 1 hour in total) to watch and digest. Some weeks, there will be optional readings and other resources to deepen the work.
weekly Q&A sessions
We'll meet each week on Thursdays from 12:30-1:30 pm ET for a supplementary mini lecture + plenty of time for Q&A. These sessions will be recorded in case you cannot attend live.
16 NPCE
After successfully completing a multiple choice quiz each week, you will earn a continuing education certificate upon completion of the course. Up to 16 NPCE have been pre-approved by the ANA for nutritionists.
🍎 register for the Course 🍎
Registration closes on June 4, 2024
Nutrition-focused physical Exam
$500
Includes access to all lessons, live calls, discussion forum, CEU certificate and more.
Pay all at once or in 8 payments of $62.50
If you're in Monday Mentoring, check the discounts/extras page for your discount code!
What's Different About this Course
Earn up to 16 NPCE
Improve your practice while earning up to 16 NPCE from the American Nutrition Association. There is no commercial material in this class and therefore members of other professions may be able to earn CEU as well.
Evidence-informed
Learn why certain NFPE findings are relevant and which ones are commonly used but not grounded in science.
indefinite access to material
You'll have ongoing access to the lectures and other materials, even after the option to submit CEU quizzes expires. Revisit the content any time, or catch up later if you fall behind during the class.
weekly live Q&A
You're not left to learn on your own. Attend live calls weekly to get answers to your questions and to learn more about how other clinicians are implementing the material.
Inclusive lens
This course will address the intersection of physical exam with religious practices and gender inclusive care as well as how to interpret findings in people of different skin colors and tones.
Taught by a clinician
Dr. Van Lare is an actively-practicing nutritionist who also teaches this material at the graduate level. The material will be both theoretical and practical.
Improve your Assessments with NFPE
Performing and interpreting NFPE rounds out client assessment and can provide valuable information - sometimes new and sometimes confirming a pattern in labs. Join us in June and July to hone your skills and deepen your clinical work 🖤
FAQ
Yes! If you are trained as a clinician in an adjacent field, you are welcome to join the course. This course is not appropriate for people who have no clinical background or training, as we will not be covering the basics of running an intake session, foundational anatomy/physiology, etc. Herbalists, dietitians, nurse practitioners, etc. are welcome to join. Please check the scope of practice and licensing regulations in your state to make sure that you are legally able to conduct a nutrition-focused physical exam prior to enrolling.
There will be approximately 1 hour of pre-recorded lecture each week (in 15-20 minute segments) + a live 1-hour session. Live sessions will be recorded and posted within 24-48 hours. The weekly quiz will cover both the recorded lectures and the live class, so you will need about 2-2.5 hours per week to complete the course content + take the associated multiple-choice quiz.
Yes. If you pass all 8 quizzes, you will receive a certificate for 16 continuing education credits. I am pre-approved to offer NPCE with the American Nutrition Association so these will count for anyone with the CNS credential. Quizzes cover the material in the pre-recorded lessons and the live session. (Note that live sessions are recorded.) Quizzes must be submitted by December 31, 2025 to receive credit. You will have ongoing access to the course material even after the quiz deadline. This course may count for other types of CEU credits as well, depending on the organization.
Yes. You can still conduct many pieces of the NFPE in a virtual environment. We will discuss how to adapt the NFPE for virtual clients, and we welcome your questions on this topic during live Q&A sessions as well.
Indefinitely. I don't like to say "forever" because one never knows. As long as I keep Bloom & Grow open, however, you will have access to the course contents. People who want to get CEU certificates will need to complete the quizzes and apply for their certificate by the end of December, 2025. However, everyone will have ongoing access to the course content indefinitely.
All videos include closed captioning and a corrected transcript. During live Zoom sessions, we use Zoom's automatic captioning, which is mostly-but-not-entirely accurate (it's getting much better, though!). If you have accessibility needs, please reach out to me to discuss. I'd love to do whatever I can so that you can have an excellent experience.
No, there is no required textbook. Suggested resources will be provided in the course materials.
