Good Sunday afternoon (or evening) Pacific students, faculty and staff,
It’s weekly update time. Well, my hair is definitely getting longer, but hopefully my emails will be getting shorter. Let’s see how it goes. I think I’ll approach today’s email via the FAQ method.
By far the most questions have related to the acupuncture clinic. Here goes.
- Will all levels of clinic, e.g. observers, assistants, interns take online clinic shifts? Yes. The levels may have different activities but it’s going to be interesting for everyone.
- Do I need to do anything special to register for online clinic? No. Register normally. If you already registered, you are all set. If you want to add more, up to a limit of three, you can do so.
- Can I take more than three internship shifts online? Start with three. If you really need more, contact your clinic director (not me, thank you).
- If I already paid for shifts for Winter 2020 semester and want to make up the missed shifts will there be an additional charge? No. You only pay for a shift once.
- If I want to make up shifts from Winter 2020 in the Spring semester, can I do that? Unless you are scheduled to graduate in August, defer those makeups until we return to onsite. Just sign up for your new online clinic shifts. If you are scheduled to graduate in August, contact your clinic director for instructions on making up your Winter shifts.
- If I do online clinic shifts and can’t get credit for them due to state regulations, do I have to pay to redo them? No. You only pay for a shift once.
- Where do we stand with CAB and ACAOM limits? I think we are going to be able to do more than the current 10% limit, but I can’t guarantee it.
- Why should I do online clinic if it’s not guaranteed to earn credit? One shift is definitely guaranteed. I think more will be. However, all you have to lose is time. If you don’t get credit, you’ll have gotten a unique and interesting, free educational experience.
- Can I pick my supervisor? Yes, within limits. Contact your clinic director if you want to change an assigned clinic shift
- When will schedules for classes and clinics be out? Soon, I hope. Please contact your campus director if you need scheduling info.
- Are offsite clinics running? No. If and when they reopen, we will make a decision about returning to them.
- If I signed up for an offsite shift, what should I do? If you had signed up for an offsite shift, you have been moved to an online shift at the same time or as near to it as possible. You do not need to do anything else.
- When will we reopen clinic or classes? Those decisions will be based on the best medical information available and may vary based on city, class and even individual faculty member. At this time, there is no anticipated start date.
- Will classes and clinic remain online for the entire Spring semester? See answer above.
- Do I earn “patient counts” with online clinic? Yes. ACAOM has posted a 10% limit, but I will be granting institution-wide exceptions to this, as CA, IL, and NY do not require specific patient counts. You will earn patient counts based on the number of online shifts you are in, two per week per shift,.
- What are we doing about contacting clinic patients? Clinic directors have made some contact with patients. At this time, the ability for student to contact them is limited. We will do our best to expand that once we start online clinic.
- Can acupuncture students actually do telemedicine? In CA, that appears to be the case. We continue to explore our options in IL and NY. Nonetheless, online clinic will be a rich learning experience.
Massage clinic and hands-on classes
Will there be an online massage clinic? In San Diego, yes. It will follow same structure as acupuncture clinic. Massage clinic in Chicago and New York have been canceled or postponed. Massage hands-on classes in NY have also been canceled.
Hands-on classes
What are we doing with hands-on classes? The didactic portion of hands-on classes have been moved to the front of the course. Courses that are shorter than 14 weeks have been delayed in hopes of returning to the campus, but they are scheduled. Some hands-on courses have been canceled. Cancellations vary based on campus. Please check your schedule, when it becomes available.
Comprehensive exams
As mentioned in other emails, Winter comps were canceled and students were allowed to proceed as if they passed either the whole exam or a makeup, whichever the case may be. Such students will need to take the next offering of the comps, hopefully at the end of the Spring semester.
If you think a career in holistic medicine is something you would like to pursue, contact us and speak to an admissions representative to get started on your new journey!
Miscellaneous
- Will tuition be reduced for Winter or Spring? The college is incurring substantial, additional expenses in order to ensure, as much as possible, students are not delayed in their educational progress. Additional expenses include online training, software licenses, additional IT staff to facilitate online training of the entire student body, and more. The college continues to be responsible for rent and all other expenses. While coping with additional expenses, the college is experiencing a complete loss of clinic revenue (while it continues to pay supervisors), no herb sales, and expects a reduction in bookstore revenue since we have only a limited ability to sell books. There will likely be a smaller group of new students starting in the Spring further reducing revenue. Therefore, I hope you can understand that, on top of these difficulties, tuition reductions are not feasible.
- Speaking of books, how do I know what books I need and how do I get them? We will try to facilitate curbside book pickups in San Diego and possibly Chicago. That won’t be possible in New York. We will let you know if/when. You can find out what books you need by checking your syllabus when available. Deans or campus directors will have more up to date info on this than I do. I didn’t want to bother them on a Sunday.
- Will the library have text books? The library may have limited electronic texts, but they should not be relied on.
- Will we be able to get herb samples? We are trying to get the herb company to drop ship them to you, but have been unsuccessful to date. Until you get samples, there are website with useful herb photos.
- Can I audit an online class? If you have already completed a class, we would prefer that you not audit the online version of it, unless you have a serious, extenuating need. Contact your academic dean.
- Is there any change in course prerequisites due to this emergency? Yes. In effort to ensure you can take the maximum credit load to progress further in the program or to qualify for financial aid, certain prereqs have been relaxed. For example, if you have taken Herbs 1, you can take Herbs 2 and/or Herbs 3. This is just an example. If you think this will be helpful to you and you are interested in details, please contact your academic dean.
- When will I get online Zoom training? New students started on April 13 and ongoing students will receive a link to training tomorrow, April 20. By the way, teachers are doing a great job of coming up to speed on the use of Zoom and Moodle, and other important aspects of online education. Most have indicated that they are looking for useful videos and other learning resources to make your online classes and clinic a rich, multimedia experience. Be patient and I believe you’ll see a gradually increasing sophistication of the online classroom. You may never want to commute again.
My best wishes to you all,
Jack
P.S. I think this email was a little shorter, right? But definitely not short. We’ll keep trying.
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