CLINICAL PRACTICUM LOG
CLINICAL PRACTICUM
It is critically important before you graduate that all students studying for any of the degree courses, to spend time with other healthcare practitioners clocking clinical hours. These clinical hours are going to be a very important part of your training, and in order to gain credibility and accreditation, as well as join Naturopathic Associations around the world, it is very important to spend as much time with other healthcare practitioners who can teach you many aspects of clinical work so that you may become a competent practitioner.
FINDING HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS AND NATURAL MEDICINE CENTERS
As there are so many different disciplines in Natural Medicine that different from country to country, it is the student's responsibility to find appropriate healthcare practitioners who they can spend time with observing and learning the various techniques and protocols that they use. Many of the following healthcare practitioners would be acceptable:
Naturopaths or Naturopathic Doctors or Physicians
Clinical Nutritionists
Clinical Dieticians
Medical doctors of different specialties, including General Practitioners
Osteopaths
Chiropractors
Acupuncturists
Massage Therapists
Herbal Medicine practitioners
Homeopaths
Energy Medicine practitioners such as Bioresonance, VEGA testing and other forms of energy work
Clinical laboratories that conduct blood tests and other functional tests
Microbiologists to gain experience in microbiology and pathology
The main weighting should be with a qualified Naturopathic practitioner, as this is the main focus of the degree. So most of the clinical hours must be spent with a Naturopath or Naturopathic doctor.
If you are uncertain or stuck regarding clinical training, please write to Dr Maria at [email protected] and she will guide you appropriately.
CLINICAL PRACTICUM LOG
It is critically important that you download a copy of the CLINICAL PRACTICUM LOG below and take this with you to your place of clinical training. Give it to the main person who you will spend time with in clinical training - if there is more than one healthcare professional training you at the same Center, then please get each individual practitioner to sign their own form. These forms must be signed and dated, with the number of hours spent in total, with the breakdown related to the activities that you were supervised for. These forms should be scanned and sent to us so that they can become part of your transcript.
You should plan on clocking about 400 hours for your Bachelor degree (about 50 days of clinical training) before you complete all your theory work and dissertation. About 150 hours hours for your Masters degree (about 18 days of clinical training) and a further 400 hours for your Doctoral degree (about 50 days of clinical training).
WORLD NATUROPATHIC FEDERATION GUIDELINES
We are following the guidelines of the World Naturopathic Federation for the training of Naturopaths, who work closely with the World Health Organisation. These two organisations are trying to standardise and upgrade the education and clinical training of Naturopaths worldwide and we are attempting to stay abreast of these changes so that you can qualify as a Naturopathic practitioner of repute, having been educated and clinically trained to a very standard.
NATUROPATHIC ASSOCIATIONS WORLDWIDE
We have already began the process of writing to Naturopathic Associations in different countries asking them to examine our degree curriculum and training guidelines, in order to accept our students to their Associations. We are at the early stages of communication, but so far we have not had one refusal and have been accepted by the Associations in Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong and the UK, with a possibility of being accepted by the World Naturopathic Federation too. This is encouraging and we hope to complete a list of many countries soon.
If you have any questions, please write to Dr Maria at [email protected]