premedplz Posted August 23, 2021 Report Share Posted August 23, 2021 so what's the deal with NDs? lots of people i knew were "pre-meds" but are now going to ND school. what's the job prospect like, is it a good and comparable alternative to medicine in terms of autonomy, ability to prescribe, income/overhead, regulated by government/federal funding/OHIP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pakoon Posted August 23, 2021 Report Share Posted August 23, 2021 Absolutely not. Not comparable in any way, they are also not covered by OHIP. There is also a growing body of Naturopaths trying to frame themselves as medical doctors to gain legitimacy. I personally do not advise anyone interested in medicine to choose naturopathy as an alternate career path. capoo, Maggiie19, garceyues and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1D7 Posted August 23, 2021 Report Share Posted August 23, 2021 Naturopaths (NDs) range from selling snake oil to convincing patients not to take cancer treatments. Think of Steve Jobs several years back where he pursued naturopathic treatments and ended up dying an early terrible death from initially treatable pancreatic cancer. It is not exactly a common path premeds take but some will do anything to try and put on a whitecoat, even if it means killing patients. It's not funded by OHIP but in some provinces (BC) there is prescribing capacity. Pakoon, IMislove, garceyues and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowmen Posted August 23, 2021 Report Share Posted August 23, 2021 You get to scam people and not go to jail. I guess that must be "good job prospects" for some people. You can even lead them to kill themselves, if you're into that kind of thing. garceyues, capoo and Pakoon 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jb24 Posted August 24, 2021 Report Share Posted August 24, 2021 Don't do it. Bottas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted August 24, 2021 Report Share Posted August 24, 2021 While I don't like naturopaths, I can see why some of them are successful and gain alot of patient trust - they have the advantage of time, and well-off patients. Most patients who see NDs often have private employer extended coverage. Thus naturopaths can charge ~150$ a 50 minute session. 50 mins where they can sit down, get to know patients, and "counsel" them on diet, active living, etc etc, on how to get their "thyroid disorder" "weight issues" etc etc under control. For alot of basic things in Family Medicine, NDs are able to learn enough to also manage easily, but then can spend 20-50mins, billing the patients insurance(or just the patient themself if willing to pay), without rush of having to head off to the next patient. I still have disdain for the majority of NDs that shill non-evidence based products, supplements and treatments, but there are some that do good preventative health work - albeit only for a small subset of well-off patients who can afford their rates or have insurance. If the govt paid me 150$ for 50mins to chill and relax with patients for easy endocrine disorders....well, i still wouldn't do it, because thats a waste of public resources, but some days i would be tempted. 1D7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bread Posted August 29, 2021 Report Share Posted August 29, 2021 I think you're going to get a more biased opinion on here - I think there are some great NDs out there. But it's also been my experience that some of the treatments and recommendations have potential to be unnecessarily harmful (ex. putting patients on extremely restrictive diets to "treat" infertility and other things, herbal treatments for various things that end up causing horrible side effects that the pt wasn't aware of, pt stops taking some of their important meds because ND advised them to stop against evidence, etc). It's generally not evidence-based practice. If you're curious about whether it's a good fit for you, I would try to set up some shadowing and do some reading about it too. Good luck! Bottas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoardManGetsPaid Posted August 29, 2021 Report Share Posted August 29, 2021 Go for it! You get to diagnose blood infections from a drop of blood and looking at it under the microscope. That takes a lot of skill and imagination to accomplish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blah1234 Posted August 29, 2021 Report Share Posted August 29, 2021 I've heard of some IMGs (not Canadian students) get a ND because they couldn't port over their residency training and couldn't get a residency spot. I have to imagine that's another way to "practice medicine" as I think you can prescribe, inject, etc. in many provinces. I wonder if those naturopaths just practice evidence based medicine but with the convenience of time and private pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jb24 Posted September 8, 2021 Report Share Posted September 8, 2021 On 8/29/2021 at 3:45 PM, blah1234 said: I've heard of some IMGs (not Canadian students) get a ND because they couldn't port over their residency training and couldn't get a residency spot. I have to imagine that's another way to "practice medicine" as I think you can prescribe, inject, etc. in many provinces. I wonder if those naturopaths just practice evidence based medicine but with the convenience of time and private pay. Practicing evidence based medicine doesn't make naturopaths money. But selling potentially toxic doses of vitamins sure does... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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