Transforming and Supporting Patient Care - Health Professions ...

260Chapter 11 – Profession of Naturopathy• Enabling competencies established in other year one courses include:Physiology, Anatomy, Histology, Biochemistry, Clinical Nutrition,Principles in Research and Botanical Medicine.• In addition to the year two course in Pharmacology, students aretaught about the safe and effective therapeutic use of botanicals inBotanical Medicine and drug-food interactions in Clinical Nutrition. Alarge component of the curriculum is devoted to four courses in thefundamentals of diagnosis. These courses include and cover both thetheoretical and practical aspects of diagnosis. At the end of the year,students are expected to be competent in reaching a physical andclinical diagnosis; able to use standard medical laboratory tests toassist them in this process; and able to generate a diagnosis bymeans of differential reasoning.• In year three, courses related to prescribing competencies include:Primary Care, Botanical Medicine, Clinical Nutrition, Venipunctureand Parenteral Therapy, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Emergency Medicineand Men’s and Women’s Health. The Primary Care course integratespreviously learned competencies into the program by increasingstudents’ knowledge of first-line pharmacotherapy, current guidelinesand best practices. This course also investigates how to criticallyevaluate therapeutic options through evidence-based risk-benefitassessment, modifiable disease factors and harm reduction in clinicalpractice. Students serve a twelve-month clinical internship duringtheir fourth year. This internship allows them to apply their skillsunder the supervision of a licensed ND to patients in the RobertSchad Naturopathic clinic and at five satellite clinics in CommunityHealth Centres in Toronto. All students are evaluatedcomprehensively as part of an assessment of their clinical skills.Graduates of CCNM are eligible for licensure in jurisdictions such asArizona where the prescribing of drugs is already part of the scope ofpractice of the profession. 27NDs indicate that regulation of the profession under the antiquated DPA andthe increase in the number of substances placed on restricted scheduleshas negatively impacted the natural evolution of the naturopathicprofession. For many years, ND students have been taught about theindications, contraindications and use of drugs in the curriculum ataccredited naturopathic colleges. In Ontario, what has been missing is theclinical experience of using drugs in the teaching clinic and in clinicalpractice. Pharmacology has been part of the NPLEX, the licensingexaminations used by all regulated jurisdictions in North America, since1994. Graduates from all of the accredited colleges of naturopathic medicinecurrently practice in jurisdictions that have prescribing authority. 2827Ibid: 26-27.28Ibid: 46.HPRAC Critical Links January 2009