Naturopathic Clinical Education at Bastyr Center for Natural Health
"You show up and give your all, bringing what you know and who you are. When a clinic patient says to me, 'You're going to make a great doctor,' it's a wonderful moment." — Adam Rinde, ND ('06)
Rigorous Training
The clinical aspect of a Bastyr University education helps you to become a competent medical professional. At Bastyr's teaching clinic, Bastyr Center for Natural Health (BCNH), as well as Bastyr's off-site clinics, you are trained to be a primary care physician capable of treating a broad spectrum of patients. This training emphasizes adherence to the highest standards in patient assessment, differential diagnosis, medical record documentation, referral practices and patient follow-up. Bastyr's instructors nurture your skills of critical thinking, creativity and flexibility, while identifying components of naturopathic philosophy in each case.
Hands-On Healing
Your patients will look to you as their clinician, the one who will guide their health care. You'll be encouraged to connect with your patients in a deep and trusting way and to communicate with them in a manner that will demonstrate compassion and will spur motivation. You will listen, examine, diagnose, coach, teach, provide care and facilitate healing. You will practice using your heart as well as your head in listening for the underlying truth behind your patients' words. You will utilize all of Bastyr's resources in your efforts to assist your patient and determine a course of treatment.
Faculty Mentorship
You will be taught by faculty who are outstanding physicians, many of whom are recognized leaders in their fields. These instructors have been hired for their expertise and ability to mentor students during their clinical rotations. Your shift supervisor encourages, leads and directs the patient/clinician encounter, while allowing you gradually increasing levels of autonomy.
Integrated Medicine
BCNH is an integrated-medicine clinic, offering clinical services to the public in naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, nutrition counseling, homeopathy, physical medicine and mental health counseling. You will be exposed to all these modalities and, if you choose an integrated shift, you will work hand-in-hand with clinical nutritionists, lifestyle counselors, and acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners. During your many hours of clinical training, you will learn when it is appropriate to refer patients to fellow CAM providers or to specialists outside BCNH.
"It's so helpful to be exposed to different patient populations, whether on campus, at the clinic, or at an offsite shift, like one at a homeless shelter. You get to see naturopathic medicine applied in all these different realms. It's exciting!" — Emily Colwell, ND ('06), MSSW
Patient Variety
Between the 35,000 yearly patient visits to BCNH and our dozen or more external clinic sites in the greater Seattle area, you will have many opportunities to treat a wide variety of patients. You may take advantage of several types of shifts. While the majority concentrate on general medicine, specialized training shifts are available in homeopathy, physical medicine (including hydrotherapy), nutrition, pediatrics, lifestyle counseling, environmental medicine, immune wellness, minor office procedures (such as wound repair and skin lesion removal), and integrated acupuncture and naturopathic medicine. You may also participate in shifts that specialize in the treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, ADD/ADHD, Lyme disease, or an integrated shift designed primarily for HIV/AIDS patients.
How It Works
Because you will have online access to the "real-time" schedule of patients, you will know in advance which patients you'll be seeing at BCNH each day, so you may properly prepare yourself. Training takes place in teams typically composed of one advanced primary clinician and one secondary observing clinician. You and your team partner are assigned to one exam room for an entire quarter, with one instructor observing and supervising your work.
Balancing Traditional Nature Cure with Leading-Edge Techniques
Bastyr enjoys an international reputation as an institution that successfully integrates the historical with the modern, the respected old traditions with today's best natural therapies. At BCNH, we consider proven folk remedies alongside the latest research findings.
We recognize that naturopathic medicine is much more than textbooks and medical equipment; it's a philosophy of life. If this is your philosophy as well, then Bastyr is the place for you to begin your career as a naturopathic physician.
"I've learned there are many kinds of naturopathic doctors with so many different gifts that they bring. Clinical education has taught me that research is very valuable, but that intuition, nature and history are just as important. There is room for it all." — Emily Colwell, ND ('06), MSSW
