The Clinical Education | The Oriental Herbal Medicine Curriculum | The Biomedical Clinical Sciences Curriculum

The program of study at Southwest Acupuncture College is a well-rounded professional degree program designed to gradually expose the emerging practitioner to the uses of Oriental and Western medical models of the human body, as well as the underlying philosophy, theory and clinical application of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. As a classical school of Oriental medicine, the program provides a broad yet deep historical base of diagnostic approaches. These paradigms range from Yin/Yang, Five Elements, Three Treasures, Four Levels, Six Stages, and Qi and Blood, to Essential Substances, Zang Fu, and Eight Principles, versus a limited concentration in any one approach. A subspecialty in traditional and modern Japanese acupuncture is carefully woven into the program, and advanced studies in this rich lineage may be taken as electives. A wide spectrum of relevant Western sciences complements the Oriental infrastructure.

The academic program at Southwest Acupuncture College consists of 3,045 hours of training in the five branches of classical Oriental medicine: acupuncture, herbal medicine, physical therapy, nutrition, and exercise/breathing therapy. The greatest number of hours are devoted to the study and practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine, with the balance of the hours completing the students’ education in graduate level studies in Oriental medicine and Western science. Upon graduation, the college confers the Master of Science in Oriental Medicine (M.S.O.M.) degree. The identical program is taught at all three campuses.

All campuses operate on a yearly schedule of three fifteen-week semesters and a ten-week summer session equivalent to a fifteen-week semester. With the exception of electives, classes are held only in the daytime. Clinic is held both in the day and the evening. While course times are set, the college clinic runs many shifts from which the students may select so that reasonable flexibility is built into the program to accommodate individual student needs.

The professional degree program, which is the equivalent of four academic years, can be taken in one of three formats. The accelerated format, our most popular option, requires approximately twenty-two to twenty-five hours of coursework per week. It allows for completion in three calendar years. The full-time format takes four calendar years to finish and requires sixteen to twenty-two hours of coursework per week. This option permits students to have a lighter schedule while still allowing for a reasonable completion time. The part-time format is an option the students can take advantage of if financial burdens or other responsibilities require the student’s attention, or if the student prefers to study at a more gradual pace. Part-time study necessitates a minimum of nine to ten hours per week of class attendance. In all cases, part-time study must be completed within seven years of entry to the program. Regardless of the pace selected by the student, the quality of the educational experience at Southwest Acupuncture College is always the aim of the education, not the acceleration of studies.

In contrast to many colleges, Southwest Acupuncture College initiates the student into the clinical experience beginning with the first term of the first year. This process exposes the student to the actual clinical practice of medicine as early as possible thereby enhancing the educational process by learning in context, testing their knowledge of the medicine, maximizing patient contact, and demonstrating its compassionate practice. The clinical training culminates in 1,140 hours of combined observation and actual practice.

The clinical phase of the student’s education at Southwest Acupuncture College is the practical counterpart to the theoretical and technical skills acquired in the classroom. It is the heart of the medicine and the curriculum. Each phase of the clinical education is carefully coordinated with the didactic coursework to provide immediate utilization of knowledge gained and to promote synthesis of subject matters acquired in separate classes. The student matures as a physician of Oriental medicine in this setting.

The entire clinical education is directly supervised by expert American and Asian practitioners. The majority of our faculty have between 15-20 years experience. Clinical instruction is competency based. Therefore, the student must successfully demonstrate the clinical skills outlined for that level before moving to a subsequent level. In addition to attendance, students are evaluated in clinic on their attendance and performance according to a number of parameters measuring diagnostic, technical, professional, social, business, and other clinical skills. The price of the clinical component of the program is included in the cost of the tuition. The clinics are extremely successful in terms of treatment results and are generally booked to capacity two to four weeks in advance. There is no shortage of patients either in terms of volume or the variety of disorders seen.

The primary purpose of the college clinic is twofold. First, it serves as the forum in which students learn the practice of Oriental medicine; and second, it fulfills the commitment of the college to provide the community with low cost, effective, medical healthcare. The student clinic is open seven to ten and half-hours per day Monday through Friday. The cost of treatments by students ranges from $0 to $25. At least one third of the treatments performed yearly in the student clinic are offered free of charge to needy patients. Free or reduced cost treatments are extended to segments of the population such as the elderly, handicapped, battered women, substance abusers and patients with AIDS or cancer. Students receive treatments at one-third the cost, and family members receive treatments for half price. Sliding scale treatments and a full range of services including acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, exercise, diet and nutritional counseling, serve to keep the clinics well-booked, and the clinic has become the first choice of many community members for effective, affordable, quality healthcare.

The Oriental Herbal Medicine Curriculum
The Biomedical Clinical Sciences Curriculum

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