It’s hard to believe, but in nine months I’m going to graduate from Bastyr with my doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine. Some of you know this journey well having done it before me. Maybe you are just starting out and it’s hard to even see when you won’t be a student; what all of the sacrifice and hard work is for. For me, the end is starting to get clear and I can taste it.
That taste though is bittersweet. Thinking about not having class anymore and finding a place to settle down hit the palate first with a nice sweet start. Leaving the good friends that I have made and this hub of progressive medicine give that finish a bitter aftertaste.
The ND Update has been quiet as I’ve enjoyed my last summer in the pac NW, but it’s time to fire it up again as this fall quarter starts, the days get shorter, and this long summer extends into October. This is the second day of Naturopathic Medicine Awareness Week 2014. I’m going to be talking to Mike Jawer from the AANP tomorrow and do a podcast on some of the festivities that are planned. Look for that in a few days. Here’s a link to the AANP Page that has lots of resources. Check it out http://www.naturopathic.org/naturopathicmedicineweek . #NMW2014
Dr. Coward…. If you’ve been following this show for a while then you know how highly I think of Dr. Steven Coward of Asheville Natural Health and Homeopathy. He is a solo practioner and NETS 6 figures seeing patients for only 25 hours or so per week. He takes Wednesday off every week. He doesn’t advertise much or nickel and dime his patients, his practice stays full, and his patients get better. It’s the best of everything. Check out the podcasts I’ve done with him here and here.
Well, I spent another week precepting with him a couple weeks ago while I was in North Carolina. We had a lot of good discussions, but the one I want to share a couple points from was from what it takes to be successful. He has seen ND’s come into his practice and into the state and not make it. What did it take to be successful? His two main points
- Confidence
- Some specialty – either in some body system (eg.. cardiovascular conditions, g/i conditions), age group (pediactrics, elderly), or by modality (physical medicine, homeopathy, etc).
I’m going to explore these topics more in the future because it’s so important for our success.
Other guests have mentioned the speciality part using various names like niche. What it comes down to is that people need a way to assocaite what you do with something. It’s a memory thing. If you just say you do natural medicine, you live it, and know it well. But for that person that doesn’t know naturopathic medicine they have nothing to make that connection with unless you give it to them. Do other things on top of that specialty, but have something that potential patient can make that connection to.
Other things:
Ebola has been in the news a lot recently. One of our own, Dr. Paul Herscu, wrote a fantastic post on ebola including potential natural treatments:
http://paulherscuepidemics.blogspot.com/2014/09/ebolavirus-2014-outbreak.html
Well worth the time to read through the whole thing.
