Admittedly I did talk him into by reminding him of the actual scope of practice a DO has, and mentioning that his soon newborn might want daddy to practice in the same state as grandma (ND's only have practice rights in Arizona, which is still one state too many). I also showed him the DO philosophy stuff that every other profession likes to steal (i.e. treating the whole patient). It was a long process, but he was my friend and I didn't have it in me to let him goto Bastyr and ruin his life.
Also thanks for the succinct statement of why it was luck, I think you described it much better than I did.
If only the bolded were true. Actually, in terms of ND practice rights, there are numerous states that license them to be PCPs and almost full on practicing "physicians":
"-U.S. jurisdictions that permit access to prescription drugs: Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
-U.S. jurisdictions that permit minor surgery: Arizona, District of Columbia, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington."
By the way, this list has actually grown in the last 7 yrs or so. I too had a friend who wanted to pursue ND, and tried to convince him otherwise. The truth is that he had no interest, absolutely 0, in practicing medicine. He was into the philosophy of naturopathy hook, line, and sinker. Like clockwork, when he hit his 3rd year he started marketing these "remedies" that he patented on social media. It was honestly painful to watch.
A 4th year actual medical student is far better equipped than a ND to practice primary care. Neither should be practicing independantly, but ND is basically premed level or below as far as I am concerned.
This is further exemplified by the ex-ND that was on ZDogg. She has her own blog -
Naturopathic Diaries. She basically became a real physician and scientist and actually tells people about the ridiculous things she learned and experienced, things that she believed at the time. She also tells about how schools basically equated her ND coursework to undergrad coursework, and ultimately when she started graduate and doctoral level courses, she understood why.
