naturopathydigest.com -- Naturopathic Philosophy, Docere and Your Role as a Publishing Clinician

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Naturopathic Philosophy, Docere and Your Role as a Publishing Clinician

By Alex Vasquez, ND, DC, Editor, Naturopathy Digest
AVasquez@NaturopathyDigest.com

One of our foundational naturo-pathic tenets is that of "Docere" (from the Latin docere, to teach), which underscores the importance of naturopathic physicians as teachers.

Accordingly, naturopathic physicians spend more than twice the amount of time as allopaths in discussing health concerns and treatments with their patients.¹ However, with full acknowledgment of the ultimately important merits of (re)educating our patients, our application of Docere needs to be expanded, for the sake of our patients, our profession and the future patients that will be served - perhaps saved - by naturopathic medicine.
We have to do more than teach our patients; we have to teach each other, and we have to teach others about the merits and rationale of our medicine. "Publish or perish" is a truism that applies beyond university campuses and into our very own profession, of which we each are an integral part. Published papers, including individual case reports, can be used to advance your career or defend your practice.
Let's start with one of your worst professional nightmares. Despite years of helping thousands of patients with naturopathic medicine, you have been called before the state medical board to defend your use of "unconventional medicine" for a group of common conditions you frequently treat. Realizing the deck will be stacked against you as you explain your naturopathic principles to a group of physician-scientists with no training in nutrition, but armed with statistical analyses that can prove rain falls upward, you are thinking to yourself that now would be a great time to be able to reach into your filing cabinet to extract a peer-reviewed publication that articulates the mechanisms, rationale and efficacy of your treatment. Further, you'd also love to have a follow-up article that compares outcomes of your treatment with those affected by pharmacosurgical interventions. Not surprisingly, this article could show that your naturopathic treatment is safer, less expensive and more effective than the standard allopathic treatment. The defense rests, successfully.
Although naturopathic medicine's principles are prophetic and our Hierarchy of Therapeutics should be a guiding principle for all health care professions, we have a strong need to consolidate our philosophy-based interventions into an articulation that demonstrates a full-spectrum understanding of each condition and its naturopathic treatment. The process is impressively simple.
You have reasons for your interventions. Sometimes you add, sometimes you subtract, other times you transform. Although you start from a solid philosophical paradigm, you implement your treatment plan with certain outcomes, pathways and mechanisms in mind, particularly when using nutrition and botanical medicines. If you simply would take the time to write these concepts and facts into a cohesive essay, you would be well on your way to your next publication.
Start with what you want to say, and say it.² Write with your whole experience, with everything you've seen and everything you feel.³ Plead your case to the universe.⁴ Periodically refine your linguistic dexterity by reading poetry,⁵ but continue to pour forth even when it's difficult. Any progress is good progress and, eventually, the accumulation of progress results in the completion of the work.
Write it by yourself or with a group of colleagues. One person writes the intro, another writes the body, and a third person writes the conclusion. A fourth person gets the articles from the library. A day's worth of collective effort, spiced with the intermixing of your talents, and the job is almost done and ready to serve.
Oaks from acorns and oceans from raindrops. We all know that big events arise from the smaller parts. The momentum builds. Take your experience and compress it into a diamond that reflects clarity into the chaos and entropy of existence. Let your Docere speak to a wider audience. And when asked to explain what you do, be proud when you deliver a document born from the union of your own mind and soul.
References

"Overall, naturopathic physicians spend more than twice as much time with patients as conventional physicians at each visit (40 minutes vs. 14 minutes), permitting more time to discuss patients' concerns and counseling/education about lifestyle issues such as diet." Boon HS, Cherkin DC, Erro J, Sherman KJ, Milliman B, Booker J, Cramer EH, Smith MJ, Deyo RA, Eisenberg DM. Practice patterns of naturopathic physicians: results from a random survey of licensed practitioners in two U.S. states. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2004 Oct 20;4:14. Click to view it online.
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Available as book and/or audio cassette.
Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones. Available as book and/or audio cassette.
Spence, Gerry. How to Argue and Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday. Available as book and/or audio cassette.
Bradbury, Ray. Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity.