“We have everything here. We can treat patients physically, emotionally, intellectually and energetically. And beyond that, we’re on top of the newest research in natural medicine.” — Jana Nalbandian, ND, Department Chair, Clinical Sciences, BCNH
“Bastyr has done a great job of hiring clinical faculty with a wide variety of philosophies and approaches. I believe there’s an instructor for each student to look up to as a mentor. We may differ in our personal beliefs about natural medicine, but what’s beautiful is that we have come together as a group of people who have all said, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’” — Adam Rinde, ND (‘06)
If you pursue one of Bastyr’s graduate programs, you’ll spend your first year immersed in books and classroom work, and then you’ll embark on the path of clinical training. Your clinical education is where it all comes together – all the classroom hours, the thousands of pages of reading, the late nights dedicated to memorizing the body’s bones, muscle groups and/or meridians and points. This is where you begin to touch patients with your knowledge, your empathy, your diagnostic skills and intuition.
Through your clinical training, you will discover your own unique strengths as you peer into your future as a nutritionist, counselor, acupuncturist or naturopathic physician. For many of you, this is the time you’ve been waiting for all your life.
Clinical education is serious business. After all, health care can literally be a matter of life and death. That’s why Bastyr University is dedicated to providing you with the best clinical education possible. In Bastyr’s efforts to help you become a competent and confident clinician, we offer the most progressive education available.
State-of-the-Art Facility
In order to guarantee the highest consistency and continuity in quality education, the heart of the clinical education program is located at our own Bastyr Center for Natural Health (BCNH) in Seattle. This thriving metropolitan clinic, located in a newly built-out site, is specifically designed to serve the unique needs of students, faculty and their patients. It is the largest and busiest natural health clinic in the Northwest. You will become an integral part of this nationally known center.
BCNH boasts 40 patient care rooms, excellent air quality, natural lighting, environmentally friendly materials and systems throughout, patient parking beneath the building, and easy access for patients with special needs. The clinic houses new physical medicine equipment, such as a two-person sauna, a low-energy laser, therapeutic ultrasound machines and other physiotherapy machines. BCNH also includes a library with computer terminals for student use, as well as natural and Chinese medicine dispensaries with comprehensive inventories. BCNH is located at 3670 Stone Way North, in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.
Experienced Supervising Faculty Currently, 64 faculty providers comprise the medical staff of BCNH. The average clinical experience of these providers is eight years. The median number of years of experience of our core clinical faculty is over 10. Many members of the acupuncture medical staff have been in practice for over 20 years. All clinic supervisors must be licensed in their field, with documented education, training, experience and competence. Many of our faculty members have published books and articles in peer-reviewed journals, and some are award winning and internationally renowned experts in diverse areas of natural health.
Abundant Patient Contact Hours
At Bastyr, we provide as many or more patient contact hours as comparable schools. In the naturopathic medicine program, you will receive a minimum of 1200 clinical training hours and approximately 600 patient contacts by the time you graduate, including the opportunity to provide health care to patients at 14 offsite clinical training sites. Acupuncture and Oriental medicine students average about 500 patient contacts during their education, including external learning sites in community clinics. Students enrolled in the master of science in nutrition and clinical health psychology spend about 600 hours working directly with patients.
