How can I enter the world of Holistic Medicine ?

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After finally being diagnosed with Chronic Lyme disease and subsequently being introduced to the world of holistic medicine through my naturopath -- I feel I have found my calling. I would like to pursue a career in Naturopathic Medicine but I am unsure where to begin. I am in my sophomore year of junior college and I am currently weighing my options to find a university that is correct for me. I am majoring in General Studies with a focus in Nursing, and I have taken or am taking four Biology classes – Anatomy and Physiology 1, Microbiology, Nutrition and Diet Therapy and Lifespan growth and Development. I am also in the Honors Society and I have a 4.0 GPA.

My plan is to earn my BSN, go into holistic nursing through a certification process , enroll in Bastyr to become a Naturopathic Doctor and ultimately establish my own private practice .

Before embarking on this journey I have a few questions -- what hospitals employ holistic nurses , would it be less "red-tape" to just become a holistic Nurse Practitioner and where can I become certified in holistic medicine ? Thank you in advance !

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Holistic nursing practice is not naturopathy. When adding the term holistic to nursing practice you are encompassing the whole patient, not the disease. Naturopathy is a whole lot of nonsense quite frankly. There's a whole blog from a young woman who is a former naturopath, here is her response to people asking if they should Perdue naturopathy: Should I go to naturopathic school? - Naturopathic Diaries

And just FYI chronic Lyme disease is not a recognized medical condition "The term chronic Lyme disease” (CLD) has been used to describe people with different illnesses. While the term is sometimes used to describe illness in patients with Lyme disease, in many occasions it has been used to describe symptoms in people who have no evidence of a current or past infection with B. burgdorferi (Infect Dis Clin N Am 22:341-60, 2008). Because of the confusion in how the term CLD is employed, experts in this field do not support its use (New Engl J Med357:1422-30, 2008)." And is a perfect example of why naturopaths are not safe medical providers.

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If your goal is to become a naturopathic doctor, why pursue nursing at all? Isn't that just a detour from your ultimate goal?

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Hello OP, congrats on finding your passion, I say go for it and I truly believe naturopathy is the foundation for good health. Although I do not have answers for you I hope you them. Best wishes and hope you are in good health.

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I suppose that this website is the wrong place to ask my question.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Okay-back to the topic at hand. To the original poster: holistic nursing is not the same as holistic medicine. So perhaps pursue your research by going in that direction?

As to some (deleted) comments: keep it within the TOS or skip the thread

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Hi All, I have been an RN for a long time. I am ready to move from disease(d) or sickness care to prevention and wellness. I find that holistic nursing is an area of interest for me. Can anyone tell me the benefits of becoming a holistic nurse practitioner as opposed to pursuing holistic nursing at the undergraduate level? I presume that becoming a nurse practitioner will entail a whole different way of thinking, more investment in , more time studying the trade journals, more time networking, and just basically more everything. Am I off base?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

All of nursing is by definition based on holistic care, there is no such thing as non-holistic based nursing. Nursing hasn't done a very good job of defending the usage of the main term that describes it; "holistic" which has been twisted to now refer to Complimentary Alternative Medicine (CAM), and sites like allnurses haven't helped in this regard by supporting this misuse of terminology.

All nurses as a basic expectation of their professional role are expected to view and treat the patient as a whole person where no single problem, illness, need, treatment, etc exists isolated from every other aspect.

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It is true that nursing care should be directed holistically, but in this case there are actual graduate nursing programs that specialize in holistic nursing and that is what I was inquiring about. In fact, I have visited several practicing nurse practictioners over the years and they did not address my concerns in a holistic fashion. They more or less addressed me as a physician would, focusing on the specific reason for the visit with questioning not going beyond that. Specified holistic nurse practitioner programs are designed where one can study complementary or alternative methods of treatment and care while incorporating the traditional. This is the type of program I am looking into as far as expanding my knowledge and skills. I am most interested in getting a response regarding whether becoming a holistic nurse practitioner is worth the time, effort, and money.

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