Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine

Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine & Health Sciences (SCNM), founded in 1992, offers a four-year professional degree in Naturopathic medicine (ND) Mission: The mission of SCNM is to advance the art and science of Naturopathic medicine, producing physicians who successfully practice excellent patient-centered healthcare.

Naturopathic medicine is more than the use of natural therapies, it is the art and science of individualized health care, going beyond superficial symptoms and getting to the root cause of disease. Naturopathic physicians (NDs) are primary care physicians who work to individualize treatment programs that may deal with not only physical, but also psychological and emotional barriers to well-being. NDs encourage their patients to be participants in their own healthcare.

NDs may go on to various careers in medicine including, but not limited to, private practice as primary care physicians, scientific research and writing, public health education, academia, and sales/marketing within the natural product industry.

Students have extensive exposure and experience with local hospitals, MDs and other health care practitioners. Academics

SCNM's curriculum is designed to provide students with the education to become managers of total integrated Naturopathic medicine. The first two years of the program are comprised of courses in basic medical sciences, clinical diagnosis and laboratory diagnosis. Students also begin to be exposed to Naturopathic therapeutic/modality courses as early as day one. The final academic years focus on clinical methods of modalities (botanical, environmental, physical and homeopathic medicine, nutrition, acupuncture and Oriental medicine, and counseling) as well as pediatrics, geriatrics, gynecology, obstetrics, neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, etc. Clinical rotations and therapeutic education are integrated completely in the final two years of the program.

Clinical training
The clinical education experience is the center component of any ND program. SCNMs clinical education is well-known for its nine extended-site community outreach clinics, various elective site medical centers targeting underserved populations, and the 'green medical clinic,' The SCNM Medical Center reaches over 50,000 people in the greater-Phoenix area. In each setting, students see patients under the supervision of attending physicians and apply the scientific acquired knowledge from their academic studies to real life clinical cases. In addition, SCNM provides access to over 150 medical clinics to ensure students receive diverse patient contacts.

Clinical components include:
• Students are required to see a minimum of 700 patients (average patient contact is over 1000 patients)
• 6:1 student to supervising physician ratio
• Gain exposure to a variety of clinical environments, including clinics, hospitals and mobile medical units