Complementary care in Uni
February 9, 2012
THE debate over whether to keep
complementary medicine courses
in Australian universities (PD 30 Jan)
has hit mainstream media, with the
Sydney Morning Herald hosting its
own reader poll on the issue.
The debate was sparked last
month when the Friends of Science
Medicine called for the end of
“pseudoscience degrees” such as
naturopathy and complementary
medicine, saying they undermined
Australian universities’ reputation
for scientific excellence.
The calls have since been met
with mixed reactions, with the Vice
Chancellor of Southern Cross
University coming out in defence of
complementary courses telling
media “The rigour of our teaching,
the qualifications of our staff and
the quality of our graduates are
the best defence against such
generalised condemnation of a
field in which we have set the
highest standards”.
Southern Cross’ Dean of Health
also defended the university’s
choice to keep complementary
courses, saying “The Australian
public are actively seeking these
types of treatments, therefore we
take seriously our commitment to
provide appropriate education in
areas of real community need”.
Meanwhile speaking to
Pharmacy Daily, the Pharmacy
Guild of Australia responded to the
furore saying it supports evidence
based education on Complementary
medicines in any format of training
be it at university or any other setting.
“Pharmacy university programs
include subjects with cover
complementary medicines,” the
Guild said.
“There are complementary
medicines that are on the PBS.
“There is no better setting than a
university to ensure training is
appropriate,” the Guild added.
Blackmores has also thrown its
support behind complementary
courses, with Chairman Marcus
Blackmore saying that with six
million Australians regularly taking
natural medicines it is “a
responsibility to ensure that health
care professionals have access to
the highest level of education to
understand different approaches
for managing health”.
“I urge this group of scientists who
have launched this campaign to open
their minds; they may well find that
the practices of Complementary
Medicine and Allopathic medicine
can co-exist in our community and
that their patients will be the
benefactors,” he added.
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