Re: ND programs – Naturopathic Medicine Network

I was also unhappy at Bastyr, so I quit to go to medical school. You don’t mention what about the program you’re dissatisfied with. So, I’ll give you my general observations.

Perhaps most importantly, the clincal program at Bastyr is a JOKE! Most students never set foot inside a hospital during their clinical training. Training is provided in a primary care clinic where 3rd and 4th years spend more time performing physical exams on each other than seeing actual patients. The range of pathologies seen is very limited. And, because of Washington laws and the inclinition of some supervisors, students have no opportunity to get experince with many of the procedures that they study in the classroom.This is a not sufficient training for a physician.

Bastyr’s basic sciences curriculum doesn’t hold a candle to medical school. Except perhaps for pathology and a couple others, the courses bore only a superficial resemblence. ND students take only half the hours of Pharmacology, yet they want prescriptive authority. The anatomy program was actually MORE stressful at Bastyr than in med school, but poorly taught.At least students get an introduction to cadaver dissection, unlike some of the other naturopath schools.

If you’re not really concerned with becoming a physician and simply wish to learn natural therapies. The nutrition and behvioral science courses that I experienced at Bastyr were excellent (though, I heard that Dr. Gaby left). Others, such as Botanical medicine, were extremely disappointing, being based more in romanticism than in rational science.

I’ve never looked into it, but I think one could save alot of time, money and aggravation and get just as good a background in these modalities by pursuing a mail order degree. In most states one could “practice”” in the same manner anyway. Also Bastyr offers no acupuncture training to naturopath students even though it is in the scope of practice in a couple states.