TRAINING IN NATUROPATHY IN THE UK
The British Naturopathic Association believes that the teaching of naturopathic practice has to be of the highest standard, and believes that the Core Curriculum in Naturopathy developed by the General Council and Register of Naturopaths should be the gold standard by which training is judged. The following is an excerpt from the GCRNs website regarding training and courses in naturopathy.UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES
There are two undergraduate courses that we recommend. One taught at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine (formerly the British College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy in London). This is the Naturopathic Diploma, usually taught combined with a BSc (Honours) degree in Osteopathic Medicine. For further details, contact the College by telephone on 020 7435 6464. The second, which has been formally accredited by GCRN in September 2004, is taught at the University of Westminster, and is the BSc (Hons) Health Sciences: Complementary Therapies (Pathway for Naturopathic Medicine) Degree. The University's School of Integrated Health can be contacted on 020 7911 5066.
POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMMES
The Register is currently working with the College of Osteopaths Educational Trust to complete the accreditation of its naturopathic Diploma. COET also offer a postgraduate diploma, which is open to registered medical practitioners, osteopaths, chiropractors and medical herbalists and other practitioners trained in anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnosis, and clinical methods to primary health care levels. For further details, contact the College on 020 8905 1937.
EXTENDED PATHWAY PROGRAMES
The Register has not as yet accredited an extended pathway programmes offering naturopathic training. However, it is conscious of the fact that a number of primary health care disciplines are now being taught using extended pathway learning and is currently working with a number of colleges and school offering such training in order to assure itself that such training will produce practitioners who will meet the minimum educational and clinical standards laid down by the GCRN.
CORRESPONDENCE COURSES
The Register believes that Naturopathy is a primary health care profession, because patients usually come to a Naturopathic practitioner without referral from a registered medial practitioner, and, therefore, without a clinical diagnosis. There is a risk, under such circumstances that an inadequately trained practitioner may not spot potentially life threatening conditions while offering to treat the patient's more superficial symptoms. For this reason, the Register requires of its practitioner members an in-depth knowledge of pathology and clinical diagnosis and a supervised clinical practical training that it believes cannot be obtained by correspondence-based training.
