Clinic Staff

Clinical Student Levels

As both a clinic and a school, Pacific College prides itself on the amount of hands-on learning our students participate in before graduation. Students start spending time in the clinic after their first or second terms of course study. All students are supervised by highly-skilled, licensed massage therapists and acupuncturists.

Observer

Observers enter the clinic with the basic theoretical knowledge needed to benefit from watching actual clinical interactions. As a student’s first step towards acquiring effective clinical skills, Clinical Observation, which must be completed on-site, gives a practical setting to the student’s training. Students will gradually progress from relatively passive observers of patient care to helping out more directly. Along the way, they will watch and become familiar with an array of clinical skills from acupuncture protocols and herbal formulas to physical examination, and reflect on the logical basis for clinical decisions and activities.

Observing clinical processes and decision-making within the actual treatment environment will give students the self-confidence they need to transition to Assistantship. By the end of the semester, the Observer should be familiar with routine TCM clinical protocols and textbook-standard clinic policies and procedures.

Observers have completed a minimum of 1 term of course study.

Assistant

As Assistants, students will be more actively involved in the care of patients. They will learn to work both as part of a team and independently, and observe the use of basic and modified OM therapies while thinking about the criteria used to make those clinical decisions. Assistantship will further enhance self-confidence and poise when working with patients, readying students for the transition to Associate Internship.

While the Assistant is still developing the problem-solving techniques and management methods needed for difficult cases, by the end of their Assistantship, students should be ready to apply textbook-standard clinical procedures, practices and prescriptions to textbook-standard cases.

Assistants have completed a minimum of 2-3 terms of course study.

Associate Intern

Associate Interns will provide a gradual transition from Clinical Assistant into full Internship with the security and support of a team. Associate Interns will use their theoretical and practical knowledge of Oriental medicine with real patients who will have a variety of health complaints. They will deliver care in a supervised environment where they can learn without fear of treatment failure. The clinic environment is one of constructive criticism, where students are challenged to use and defend their clinical reasoning.

Associate Interns have completed a minimum of 5-7 terms of course study.

Senior Intern

Masters Clinical Internship

The primary difference between Internship and the earlier student levels is the development of self-directed learning skills. No curriculum alone can teach every graduate exactly what to do for every patient, so as an Intern, students must learn for themselves how to approach therapy as a whole. This means pursuing additional self-directed research, outside consultation, and setting up a working diagnosis and treatment plan. Interns will learn how to rationally measure clinical success and effectiveness and figure out what path ailments are most likely to follow. In short, Interns will develop clinical problem-solving skills and learning methods that will ensure continued, career-long clinical development. In addition to the clinical aspects of the internship, students will develop and employ the business skills needed to find and retain patients.

Masters Interns have completed a minimum of 8-10 terms of course study.

Massage Therapy Internship

Massage Interns will use their theoretical and practical knowledge of massage therapy with real patients with a variety of health complaints, delivering care in a supervised environment where learning is emphasized. No curriculum alone can teach every graduate exactly what to do for every patient, so as an Intern, students must learn for themselves how to approach therapy as a whole. This means pursuing additional self-directed research, outside consultation, and setting up a working diagnosis and treatment plan. Interns will learn how to rationally measure clinical success and effectiveness and, when necessary, figure out what path ailments are most likely to follow. In short, Interns will develop clinical problem-solving skills and learning methods to ensure continued, career-long clinical development. Interns will also educate clients and the general public about the benefits of massage therapy.

Massage Therapy Interns have completed a minimum of 2 terms of course study.