At Chinese Doc Singapore, we want to value add to the patient coming in. In most cases, it is enough to use a traditional approach to treat a certain conditions. But we always want to find better ways to help our patient. Or to at least tell the patient the areas we are able to help with, and the areas that are not the strong suit of Chinese medicine.
For this project, we deep-dived into the medical journals to uncover the manifold uses of XCHT, including for breast cancer, Hepatitis C, Atopic Dermatitis, Alzheimer’s, Anxiety, Depression and Chronic Fatigue.
Our Research Assistant (who was started as an intern two year ago) proceeded to have her do a full intake on a patient with Depression and Chronic Fatigue. Her final formulation was considered and used by us to successfully help that patient – watch the video above to learn how!
Are you a student looking for a TCM Clinic Internship?
We have been hosting clinic interns since 2016. A TCM Clinic Internship should allow you the chance to move beyond books and actually try out the work to see if you really want to be a clinician.
We know that you have been on the treadmill since starting school, and it only gets more busy. While all the book knowledge is essential, trying your hand at clinical work is equally important.
Clinical work is not just taking needles out of patients, or watching while the Practitioner you follow is seeing a patient. Where possible, you will want to be trying your hand at this yourself, while in the presence of an experienced practitioner.
We believe in providing an experience we wish we had when we were learning the ropes.
So, first of all, we need to establish a fit.
Our Approach
We believe that learning from the textbooks is not enough.
Once you know the language of TCM, you can always refer back to the textbooks, but that is not enough.
We don’t want to spend too much time on Yin and Yang and the Five Elements (阴阳五行). While the philosophies around it are beautiful, what happens at the clinic is that there is someone in front of you with a problem you are tasked to solve.
The focus is to solve his or her problem.
The beauty of TCM is that we have a lot of knowledge at our disposal. Not just all the accumulated knowledge from the classics all the way up until the 20th century. But also knowledge about herb pharmacognosy that informs our use of herbs within a classical framework.
How do we start the clinical internship?
We will start by understanding your areas of interest so that we can assess how best to support your growth. We want the learning to fit your interests.
We start with research on a medical condition. We can figure out what specific condition is a fit for you and the Clinic.
We start with herbs. Herbs from a TCM Framework, then a pharmacological framework.
And we proceed from here.
If you don’t like this work, you wouldn’t stay. But if you like it, it can be very interesting.
What you won’t get at the beginning
You won’t get to work with patients from the get-go. We just focus on digging deep into an area that you have a preference for.
You may end up reading a lot. And then producing your own knowledge from what you read.
You won’t be seeing cases so much (you might) in the beginning. The point is not for you to watch a case happening, but for you to gain the knowledge so that we will be able to have an intelligent conversation about the case at hand. Ultimately, you want to start doing cases — cases equals clinic experience.
As a TCM Intern, you want to learn how to think on your own. It should not be an experience where you are being fed reasons why this or that. It should be a process where you are thinking actively how to solve the problem with your present toolset.
How do I know if I am a good fit for the internship?
If you have a good brain and have the motivation to want to research deeply into an area, you will have the opportunity. We believe that the rote learning in school is important, but this type of on-the-job learning is crucial.
The point is to use your brains to help add more value in the clinic.
If what you just read awakens something in you, it mean you are probably a good fit.
What others have experienced before
Choosing an area they want to work on.
Waiting for the opportunity to try your hand.
Reading up on the writings of other Lao Zhong Yi (老中医) to deepen your knowledge.
Researching on the same topic from reading research papers — this is a must because we don’t want to just remain in the TCM framework.
Below are some of the areas we have focused on: