Building BridgesQualitative Assessment of a Clinical Faculty Exchange between a Naturopathic and an Allopathic Medical Training Program

Bastyr UniversityNaturopathic Physician Research Education Project (N-PREP)

Rachelle McCarty ND MPH

Clinical Exchange Goals

To provide Bastyr faculty an opportunity to observe how evidence-based medicine (EBM) is performed at the University of Washington (UW), and UW faculty to model EBM to Bastyr students at Bastyr Center for Natural Health (BCNH)

Foster integrative medicine at both clinics

Program Overview Administrative support for observation

agreements (immunization/TB updates, background checks, approval signatures, name badges)

Bastyr faculty observe four hours weekly at UW for three months

UW faculty observe once monthly at BCNH

Faculty schedule shifts themselves

Program Evaluation - NDs All Bastyr faculty completed written evaluation

to determine if program goals were met: EBM observed change teaching/practice impediments to EBM at BCNH satisfaction with program

Based on informal feedback, added Qualitative Assessment: 2 one-hour focus groups, individual structured interviews

Four Questions What did you take, if anything, from the clinical

exchange experience beyond what was specified in the grant?

How are you using and implementing these ideas and experiences?

Were there any other unexpected benefits in the areas of teaching, administrative processes or clinical practice? If so, what were these specifically?

What additional comments, suggestions or recommendations do you have for future clinical exchanges?

Methods and Results 53% of core clinical faculty (22% of all

clinical faculty) completed a clinical exchange between October 2007 and July 2010

Nine participated in either a focus group or a structured personal interview

Two independent manual content analyses of transcribed notes yielded eight major themes

Consensus by team results in six final categories

Six Themes Integrating EBM into ND Clinical Teaching Strengthening of Professional

Relationships Exposure to Clinical Experiences outside

the Usual ND Scope Reaffirmation of Naturopathic Training and

Profession Observation of Clinical and Administrative

Resources Recommendations for Future Clinical

Exchanges

National Center for Complementary and Alternative MedicineNational Institutes of HealthU.S. Department of Health and Human Serviceswww.nccam.nih.gov

This work was supported by a grant from

Team Robin Fenn PhD Barak Gaster MD Wendy Weber ND PhD MPH Jane Guiltinan ND Manuscript accepted to EXPLORE: The

Journal of Science and Healing