At Boucher, we believe that Professional Development is integral to the learning experience. As such, we have built a comprehensive professional development program designed to teach students about branding, promotion and relationship building.
Jurisprudence
Boucher’s Jurisprudence professional development courses prepare the student for the provincial licensing jurisprudence board exam. Students will receive instruction on the legislation that governs healthcare practice in general and Naturopathic Medicine in particular. The focus of this course rests on the Health Professions Act as applied to Naturopathic Doctors in B.C. The concept of Natural Justice and Jurisdictional Rules are discussed and explored.
The bylaws for the College of Naturopathic Physicians of BC are also explored. Included in this conversation are the ethical aspects and considerations of clinical practice – duties of the doctor, liability, negligence, standards of care, consent to treatment and confidentiality.
Naturopathic Ethics
Naturopathic ethics focuses on developing the student’s ability to analyze many of the ethical issues that will arise throughout their professional careers. The course begins with an introduction to the professional roles and responsibilities of the naturopathic physician as a health care professional. It starts from the premise that responsibility to others invariably presupposes responsibility to self, and focuses on the integral “owning” of the professional promise to serve the well being and best interests of patients and society. Students will be introduced to philosophical traditions that ground Western moral and ethical thought. They will then learn to use a model for decision making that will facilitate their efforts to work through ethical issues and dilemmas in the context of health care practice. This framework will guide students in working through topics and issues such as informed consent, right to refuse treatment, patient privacy, and confidentiality, cultural issues, respect for persons of difference, ageism, maintenance of professional relationships and boundaries, providing equity in the delivery of health care services, abortion and life and death decision making.
Professional Development
The responsibility of the Professional Development curriculum is to prepare students for the rigours of everyday practice as doctors and as business professionals.
The Professional Development curriculum begins with a focus on personal, financial and life planning with an introspective and explorative framework that facilitates personal and professional growth, and an understanding of how to leverage personal strengths. The current and evolving state of the profession, financial expectations and goals are explored. Later, the program provides tangible and pragmatic frameworks for the development of branding, networking and marketing strategies tailored to the individual, arms the student with the tools to understand and evaluate contracts in business, and guides them in developing clear and specific frameworks for the delivery of their practice.
Additional topics discussed include professional licensing, assessment of practice opportunities and structures, public relations and public awareness, fee structures, records maintenance, online tools, taxes, bookkeeping and basic accounting, professional liability, and insurance needs. Throughout the curriculum, students are also exposed to guest speakers including, but not limited to recent graduates, outstanding business professionals practicing in unique ways, and financial advisors.
The Professional Development curriculum culminates in the development of the Professional Practice Portfolio (PPP), a business plan framework the student can directly develop their practice from immediately upon graduation. The PPP consists of three distinct, but interrelated components: the Self-Awareness & Authenticity Profile (SAAP); the Brand Strategy Document (BSD), and the Client Service Plan (CSP).
Research
The ability to discern valid from faulty logic while investigating conclusions is an important skill for the practitioner. This course develops these abilities by examining the validity and reliability of research findings, increasing the ability to investigate research, analyzing research design and data collection models, understanding the purpose of using statistics and developing analytical and critical thinking skills.
This course is designed to provide students with an introductory understanding of research methods, clinical epidemiology, evidence-based clinical practice and research issues pertaining to Naturopathic Medicine. Its aim is to enable students to identify, interpret, appraise and apply research relating to health care. Students will gain an understanding of the research literature and its implication for clinical practice, as well as the ability to apply valid information from the medical literature to educate themselves and their patients.
The first two years of the program focus on research literacy and literature appraisal using periodic lectures and seminars on specific topics, along with regular small group discussions and tutorials. In the third and fourth years of the program, students will participate in various forms of research activity, ranging from writing case reports to conducting projects under the guidance of a mentor.
Public Health
This course will introduce students to the concepts of epidemiology and public health by providing a historical overview and exploring contemporary health issues related to the delivery of care at a global, national, and provincial level. The concept of universal healthcare will be considered by examining various healthcare models in place around the world. In addition, the impact of the key social determinants of health on potential health outcomes and the impact Naturopathic Doctors can have to address them will be discussed.
