Touchpoints: A Massage Therapy Blog

In the video below, Dr. Randy Swenson, dean of the NUHS College of Allied Health Sciences, explains the many advantages of National University's massage therapy educational programs. Few programs offer advantages like our cadaver-based anatomy lab, our on-campus integrative medical clinic, or our exceptional pass rate on national board exams.

Dr. Swenson holds a DC degree from NUHS as well as a Master of Health Professions Education degree from University of Illinois at Chicago, and is currently serving as Chair of the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation.

Dr. Jerrilyn Cambron, professor at National University, has been elected "president elect" for the Massage Therapy Foundation. Her position will begin in March of 2013, and she will serve her two-year term as president from 2014 - 2016.

Dr. Cambron was previously elected to the Foundation's board of trustees in 2010, and became a vice president of the organization in 2012.

The focus of the Foundation is to "advance the knowledge and practice of massage therapy by supporting scientific research, education, and community service."
Dr. Cambron says, "These three tenets of research, education, and community service are exactly what I stand for as well, so as a massage therapist, the Foundation was a natural match for me. "

"The Massage Therapy Foundation's work is very exciting," says Dr. Cambron. "We have an international massage therapy research conference coming up, and also an online open-source journal that is indexed in PubMed. The Foundation gives out funding for research and community service projects, and is starting a webinar series on how to write case reports. In fact, we have a case-report contest for both students and practitioners." says Dr. Cambron.

Dr. Cambron serves on the faculty of National University's Research Department and in addition to her doctor of chiropractic degree, holds both a master's degree in public health and PhD from the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois-Chicago. She is also a licensed massage therapist and founder of MassageNet, a practice-based research network for massage therapists.

If you missed last week's Information Night, you missed a great event with featured speakers Dr. Randy Swenson, our Dean, and Massage Envy owner, Jan Gentner!

The hit of the night, as usual, was our cadaver demonstration. Because our students spend a good deal of time studying anatomy on cadavers, it's important for them to get to view a body and hear about how instrumental this learning tool will be in their future studies.

Our alumnus, Matt Clement, gives a guided tour of the body as he shares the highlights of his experience as a student and as a professional massage therapist--and Matt's got some great stories! We invited our guests to put on some gloves and touch the human body (if they dare) and we had a few takers. Each person that donates a body to science is offering the ultimate gift to medical and health students and we are most grateful and respectful of that gift. This type of experience in a massage school is quite unique.

We also visited Dr. Ed Bifulco's palpation class where his students were poking and prodding the knee area to learn how to detect abnormal pathologies. This is a class that is not teaching any kind of massage technique but is one of the foundation courses that make our students well prepared to detect areas of concern in the body.

I can guarantee you will be well prepared for your board exam and your career if you decide to choose National for your formal education. Give me a call (1-800-826-6285) or email me if you'd like to visit or just chat. Personal tours are offered every week day.

- Deb