Clinical Internships

Clinical Internships

We  understand that becoming a successful healer are the goals for VUIM students and our clinical structure and supervision will help turn that worthygoal into a reality.

Practical skills performed in the patient clinical encounter requires the requisite knowledge learned in the didactic portion of the MAc and MAcHM curriculum but is transformed into dynamic clinical skills through VUIM’s comprehensive clinical internship program.

There are two levels of clinical learning and skill development in the program:

1) Observation

Through the observation level, student interns learn the basics of clinical conduct and develop a high degree of comfort within the clinical setting.  They observe clinic supervisors and senior student interns treat patients, where they are exposed to the process of performing the patient intake, development of the diagnosis, and treatment options.  The total hours of the clinical observation level is 150 hours.

2) Clinical Skill Development

Following the observation portion of the clinical phase of the program, student interns participate in 3-5 distinct clinic intern levels (MAc students complete 3 and MAcHM students complete 5). During the clinic levels, the student interns, under Clinic Faculty Supervision, take on increasing levels of  responsibility in leading the clinical encounter. Through this process, student interns further develop their diagnostic and treatment skills, as well as their ability to develop and maintain patient rapport. The total hours of this phase of the clinical training is 540 for MAc students and 840 for MAcHM students.

By completing these two levels of clinical skill development, VUIM student interns progress from beginning level practitioners to, upon graduation, exemplary practitioners able to treat their patients safely, competently, and with the utmost compassion and care.