Point taken.

Here\'s a telling vignette - when I was in school at Bastyr I was asked how much I expected to earn as an N.D. over dinner with fellow students. When I responded that I expected to make a living commensurate with what I am now making I was ridiculed. I came away from that dinner convinced that many of my peers wanted a part time job.

A full time physician should expect to earn $110,000 or more. As an N.D., you have to expect to work as a fulltime physician. If and when you do, you will be remunerated in kind.

More valuable than salary will be the impact you have on your patients. Nothing compares with the satisfaction of having treated infection without resort to prescription drugs, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure through diet, lifestyle and botanicals, lifting someone out of depression with botanical medicine & cognitive behavioral counsel, seeing a couple conceive a child with the help of herbs & acupuncture after repeat failures with repro. endocrinology...the list goes on and on.

That is the real pay. But you have to be working fulltime to become a physician people will trust, a doctor that patients will depend on.

So I am worried and somewhat uncomfortable that the money is an issue. It won\'t be and you shouldn\'t have that worry.

I worked very, very hard to ensconce myself in the medical community where I live. I read the medical and botanical and TCM literature, as I was encouraged to do & did at Bastyr. I practice as any good GP/FP would. I have honed my craft so that I am the doctor I would want anyone to consult if they develop an illness. The difference is that I do not write for prescription medicines and I do not encourage surgery and, as an N.D., I give responsible counsel on how best to avoid illness.

This was how I wanted to practice 25 years ago when I made the choice to study naturopathic medicine.

What I practice, what any of you will practice if you choose naturopathic medicine, is good medicine, excellent medicine. It\'s not just how you\'re taught but also must become a standard you hold yourself to.

Another vignette - I lectured about evidence-based naturopathic medicine in house for more than two hours pro bono just weeks ago to a group of 40+ breast cancer survivors at the request of the Oncology department of a local hospital. This should be happening all the time with N.D.s throughout the country. Sick people need to know the care and quality of care an N.D. delivers

M.D.s who practice \"holistic\" medicine in my area earn twice my pay. And they know nothing about what they\'re doing. Trust me on this. I\'ve taken care of people who they\'ve mistreated.

My point with all this is that N.D.s and N.D. students have allowed our medicine to be usurped by profiteering M.D.s instead of educating our communities about our craft. What we do, the practice of naturopathic medicine, risks slipping into desuetude if this persists.

You should know N.D.s in your area who are at least as successful as I am. If this isn\'t the case, the blame lies with the community of naturopathic physicians.

I am frustrated by the fact that successful, effective practices of naturopathic medicine like mine are not becoming common all over the country. People need this option.

If you chose to be an N.D., the satisfaction of fully learning this system of care & practicing as a naturopathic physician is what you need to be choosing. You can and will earn what you want. I am proof of that.

regards,

John