Any NP's working with Naturopaths?

[joyrochelle]

i am very interested in some day perhaps working with a friend who is also in school, although to be a ND at Bastyr. I would love to have a multi faceted practice with ND's, NP's, LMT's, RD's..... a MD perhaps......

Anyone have any experience in this type of practice as a NP? I would love to hear about yoru involvement in the development of the practice, your personal scope within the practice, etc.

[jer_sd]

I think this would be a great interdisiplinary team. Definatly something interesting to look into.

Jeremy

[Josh L.Ac.]

ND's at Bastyr have the option of doing a 12-month program at Seattle University to become a FNP, but very few actually do...although some of my friends wanted to but were too worn out by the time they finished the program. Most of the successful NDs I went to school with started in multi-disciplinary practices with MDs, PAs, and FNPs. I'm not sure what state you want to practice in, but the ND scope is fairly limited in most states.

Personally, I think NDs play a great role in health care but not as PCPs. They don't have the training, patient experience, or residency. It scares me that some of the students I knew were confident in their abilities to act as a primary care physician knowing that a large number of their required patient contacts [which was only about 400 TOTAL!] were fellow students filling in so people could get their required numbers.