Course Synopses

Nutrition Courses

NUT200-6       Introduction to Food and Nutrition

The first part of the course explores the role of food as sources of nutrients. Principles of food composition, preparation, selection, and storage, with special reference to functionality and chemical changes that occur during handling are considered. Safety, sanitation, and HACCP are considered.

The second part of the course introduces the basic concepts in human nutrition. Students will be introduced to the various macro-and micro-nutrients and energy utilization in the body. The course will also deal with food composition analysis in relation to recommended dietary guidelines and nutrient requirements.

NUT201-3        Food Security

An overview of food security issues that include accessibility and availability of nutritious food at community and household levels. Review of coping mechanisms and strategies to address food insecurity and its implications on nutritional status.

NUT202-3       Lifecycle Nutrition

This course addresses physiological and sociological basis for nutrient needs for health and disease prevention during the different stages of life: pregnancy, lactation, infancy, preschool, middle childhood, adolescence, adulthood and later maturity.

NUT203-2       Health Promotion and Nutrition Education

Theoretical aspects that form the basis of nutrition education and their application to the development of educational strategies and programs to improve the public’s eating habits will be studied. The role of health promotion and evaluation of nutrition education interventions will be analyzed.

NUT300-3       Ecology of Nutrition

The course deals with the scientific basis of contemporary food selection for human nutrition and changes in the availability and use of food in Lesotho. Emphasis will be on food use patterns based on social, behavioural, and economic influences. Topics on interaction of the environment and food availability, quality, and consumption will be discussed.

NUT301-3        Metabolic Endocrinology II

Describes the mechanism by which cells and organs control nutrient metabolism. Control and integration of micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) metabolism in human nutrition.

NUT301-3        Metabolic Endocrinology I

Describes the mechanism by which cells and organs control nutrient metabolism. Control and integration of macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, and lipid) metabolism in human nutrition.

NUT302-3       Clinical Nutrition (Medical Nutrition Therapy II)

Continuation of Medical Nutrition Therapy I. Examination of metabolic and physiological changes in selected conditions and implications for dietary management. Extensive case studies utilized to facilitate critical thinking for appropriate nutritional care.

NUT302-3       Clinical Nutrition (Medical Nutrition Therapy I)

Examination of metabolic and physiological changes in selected conditions and implications for dietary management. Extensive case studies utilized to facilitate critical thinking for appropriate nutritional care.

NUT303-3       Community Nutrition I

Focuses on program planning, community assessment and design, implementation and evaluation of community based nutrition interventions specific target groups: Goals and community assessment for nutrition interventions.

NUT303-3       Community Nutrition II

Focuses on program planning-community assessment, implementation and evaluation of community based nutrition interventions specific target groups: implementation strategies for nutrition interventions.

NUT304-2       Nutrition and HIV/AIDS

Describes the pathophysiology of HIV/AIDS and the role of nutrients in the management of HIV/AIDS institutionally and through home-based care.

NUT305-4       Research Methods in Human Nutrition

The course introduces students to methods of clinical community, international and laboratory-based nutrition research. Lectures, readings, and assignments will cover basic concepts. Students will undertake a computer directed literature search and analysis.

NUT306-4       Nutritional Assessment

Theory and application of nutrition assessment techniques: Anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, dietary, and functional performance as well as record keeping.

NUT306-4       Nutritional Assessment (Practicum)

Theory and application of nutrition assessment techniques: Anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, dietary, and functional performance as well as record keeping. Supervised practical experience in the community or institutions.

NUT307-2       Nutrition in Developing Countries

Multidisciplinary analysis of nutritional issues in developing countries with reference to policies, political environment, economic and socio-cultural dynamics in determining nutritional well-being of communities and individuals. The role of international agencies and multinational co-operations in nutrition will be described.

NUT400-3       Energy and Nutrient Interrelationships

The course deals with the manner in which the body makes use of the energy locked in the chemical bonding within food. The release of energy for survival of the body through the process of metabolism of food is explained.

The course will also teach the various components of energy expenditure (i.e., resting energy expenditure, voluntary activity, and the thermic effect of food), and the factors that affect the metabolic rate.

NUT401-3        Clinical Nutrition (Medical Nutrition Therapy III)

Continuation of Medical Nutrition Therapy II. Examination of metabolic and physiological changes in selected conditions and implications for dietary management. Extensive case studies utilized to facilitate critical thinking for appropriate nutritional care.

NUT401-3        Clinical Nutrition (Medical Nutrition Therapy IV)

Continuation of Medical Nutrition Therapy III. Examination of metabolic and physiological changes in selected conditions and implications for dietary management. Extensive case studies utilized to facilitate critical thinking for appropriate nutritional care.

NUT402-3       Community Nutrition III

Focuses on program planning-community assessment, implementation and evaluation of community based nutrition interventions specific target groups: management, organization and evaluation of nutrition interventions.

NUT403-3       Herbs, Alternative Remedies and Phytochemicals

Exploration of alternative remedies (herbs and phytochemicals), their significance to health and nutritional well being: factors that promote their use.

NUT406-3       Nutrition Planning and Counselling

The course emphasizes techniques and strategies to increase proficiency in interpersonal skills, especially, “helping skills”, in the nutritionist’s role as communicator, interviewer, counsellor, educator, motivator, and behavioural change specialists. These skills will be used to help in formulating socio-culturally and economically acceptable and feasible nutrition plans for different categories of clients, patients, families, and members of the community.

NUT407-3       Interaction Between Drugs and Nutrients

The course introduces students to drug-nutrient interactions. The therapeutic effects or side effects of medications ultimately diminishing nutritional status, or, conversely, the nutritional status of the individual decreasing drug efficacy or increasing toxicity will be emphasized. The course will also emphasize acute toxic reactions, including food-drug incompatibilities and the effects of vitamin antagonism and their clinical outcomes, long-term effects of drugs in relation to nutrition, resulting in changes in appetite, maldigestion, and malabsorption, and mineral and vitamin depletion from urinary losses and the effects of drugs on nutrient catabolism. The course will discuss how these mechanisms can lead to impaired nutritional status

NUT408-3       Sports Nutrition

Examine energy metabolism and physical activity. The role and use of nutrition in strategies to meet the energy, power output, nutrient demands of exercise and athletic performance.

Pharmacy Courses

PHA210-5        Pharmacy Practice I

The course introduces students to the art of compounding and dispensing. It covers first steps in dispensing and deals principally with principles of prescription dispensing, pharmaceutical calculations, preparation of various pharmaceutical formulations, posology, properties and uses of medical gases, wound dressings sutures and other surgical materials. The role of Pharmacy in Health delivery systems as well as the psychological and sociological aspects of the profession, pharmaco-epidemiology, pharmaco-vigilance and health economics will also be dealt with

PHA211-3        Pharmaceutical Chemistry I

A basic organic chemistry course program that introduces students to the various classes of organic compounds and functional groups taking part in reactions akin to this group of compounds. It provides a foundation for the student’s future understanding of the properties, chemical structures, and reactions of pharmaceutical materials in general and of the action of drugs at the molecular level and their potential interactions during formulation of pharmaceutical preparations.

PHA310-3        Pharmacy Practice II

The course covers areas of professional pharmacy practice and is intended to give further guidance and instruction in the dispensing of medicines and related products. It will essentially cover topics pertaining to Community, Hospital and Industrial Pharmacy practice, patient compliance and the hazards of drug abuse and misuse from the individual and social aspects of community life. Use of diagnostic aids and appliances that ensure patient compliance, development of interpersonal skills in professional relationships and also patient counseling skills will be covered.

PHA311-4        Pharmaceutical Chemistry II

Covering mainly aromatic organic chemistry, the course focuses on the more complex organic structures forming the building blocks of most drug and biochemical molecules and which determines the chemical properties and reactivity of such compounds. Students will also be introduced to the use of mass spectroscopic, nuclear magnet resonance (NMR), Infrared and ultraviolet spectrometry and chromatographic separation techniques in structural elucidation and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical compounds will be the focus of this course program.

PHA410-4        Pharmacy Practice III

The course covers legislative and ethical aspects of Pharmacy practice. Wound management and stoma care and products used for such purposes and also aseptic techniques in the formulation or reconstitution of sterile products will also be dealt with.

PHA411-3        Pharmaceutical Chemistry III

Assays of pharmaceutical compounds will be covered under this course. Typical classes of organic compounds of plant origin which are of medicinal importance notably glycosides, terpines, terpenoids and alkaloids will be treated in details. Also heterocyclic compounds, polycyclic aromatic compounds and stereochemistry will be covered.

PHA212-3        Pharmaceutical Science I

The Physicochemical properties of drug systems and biopharmaceutics are the principal areas of focus of this course. Dissociation and ionisation properties as factors determining the solubility and partitioning of drugs in pharmaceutical systems and body fluids and hence their degree of absorption from extravascular sites of administration, rates of dissolution and decomposition kinetics as well as viscosity properties of pharmaceutical liquid preparations will be covered in details.

PHA213-6        General Pharmacology

The course covers mainly basic concepts and principles in Pharmacology. Focusing on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of drug action, drug absorption and disposition, drug metabolism and also the Pharmacology of the Central and Peripheral nervous systems and the local autacoids it aims at creating a foundation for students’ future understanding of the therapeutic application of drugs through the explanation of processes underlying the general mechanism of drug actions and the body’s handling of drugs to which it is exposed.

PHA312-3        Pharmaceutical Science II

The course introduces students to the properties and use of radiopharmaceuticals in conventional medicine. The biological hazards accompanying the handling and use of such substances will be emphasised. Other topics to be treated will include rates of reactions, stability considerations of pharmaceutical systems, powder technology and drug manufacturing. Principles underlying operations of equipment used in the pharmaceutical industry and the practical application of chemical stability and powder technology in drug manufacturing will be focal points of discussion under industrial pharmacy topics.

PHA314-12       Pharmacology and Therapeutics I

The course focuses mainly on the pharmacologic action of drugs and drug use in the management of various disease conditions. It aims at familiarising students with drug management protocols of common pathological conditions they will most likely encounter in practice. It covers drug actions on the central nervous and endocrine systems. Drugs which are neither related to neurotransmitters nor hormones and which act on peripheral tissues will also be treated. Introducing students to the therapeutic application of drugs the course also treats drug management protocols of such disease conditions as endocrine and metabolic disorders and diseases of the circulatory system.

PHA315-6        Pharmaceutical Microbiology

The course treats bacterial, fungal and viral morphology, reproduction/replication and growth in a way as to form the basis of student’s understanding of the mechanisms of action and use of anti-microbial agents. Antimicrobial agents currently in use for the management of various infections will be treated in details. Protozoal and metazoal infections and infestations along with their respective chemotherapies will also be covered

PHA412-4        Pharmaceutical Science III

The course aims at training students in drug formulation. Use of surface active and suspending agents in the formulation of liquid dosage forms to aid solubility and promote stability of such dosage forms of drug preparations will form the focal areas of discussion. Various drug delivery systems, quality assurance procedures in drug manufacturing and current advances in drug formulation technology and the evaluation of same against traditional methods will also be discussed.

PHA414-6        Pharmacology and Therapeutics II

Further drug treatment of commonly encountered pathological disorders are discussed in this course. Among disease conditions to be treated are psychiatric disorders and diseases of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, the liver, kidneys, joint and connective tissues and the skin. Anti-parasitic and cancer chemotherapies will also be covered.

PHA416-6        Clinical Pharmacy I

Acquainting students with parameters and techniques applied in assessing or evaluating patient response to drug treatment and the enhancement of their ability to make relevant clinical judgements and clinical interventions in drug therapy is a principal objective of the Clinical Pharmacy component of the course program. This module of the course thus essentially covers clinical pharmacokinetics with emphasis on design of therapeutic regimens and the interpretation of clinical laboratory and other diagnostic tests used in patient evaluation. The formulation of total parenteral nutrition for critically ill patients is also covered.

PHA510-3        Pharmacy Practice IV

Topics encompassing social aspects of Pharmacy practice as well as the wider roles of the pharmacist in health care will be main areas of focus of the course. The pharmacist’s response to symptoms as presented at the Pharmacy will also be discussed.

PHA516-10       Clinical Pharmacy II

Focus of attention for this course is geared towards the development of expertise in Clinical Pharmacy Practice. Topics to be covered will principally include review of medication charts, interpretation of patient records, use of objective and subjective patient data in therapeutic drug monitoring, making and implementing relevant clinical decisions, minor procedures in diagnosis and Clinical trial methodology. Clinical teaching activities will include ward rounds, tutorials, patient interviews and counseling.

PHA517-6        Pharmacy Management

The course essentially covers aspects of managing drug supply within the legal and drug policy frame works of a country but with the focus of attention being on the situation in Lesotho and the sub-region. Drug management cycle with its components of drug selection, procurement and distribution and management of drug use is covered. Also addressed are the issues of management support components comprising organization and management, financing and sustainability of drug supply systems, information and human resource management.