The Yo San University Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) Program completed a significant step in the rigorous process of earning accreditation when the program hosted a site visit team from the Accrediting Commission of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM). The site visit, which took place Friday through Sunday May 20-22, 2011, was conducted specifically to discern the program’s readiness for “Accreditation Candidacy” status.
The 4-person site visit team conducted a careful examination of the program Self Study document for compliance regarding ACAOM’s eight eligibility requirements and for progress regarding the accrediting organization’s fourteen accreditation standards. Each member of ACAOM’s team was assigned several eligibility requirements and accreditation standards to examine through paper documentation and interviews with program students, faculty and administrators. It was an intense three days as the site team dug deep to discern mission, vision, objectives, culture, content, processes and logistics of Yo San’s first doctoral program.
During the site visit weekend students from both Cohort #1 and (the brand new) Cohort #2 were on campus for their scheduled didactic residency and clinic sessions. The visitors viewed classes and enjoyed a working interactive lunch with both cohorts on Friday and kept pace with a packed schedule of interviews, observations and phone calls that culminated in interactions with DAOM student practitioners and their clinical faculty at the Sunday Fertility Clinic sessions at Yo San.
After several hours of deliberation and writing the team completed a summary of their visit. At the exit presentation, the verbal summary report indicated “compliance” regarding all of the eight eligibility requirements as well as regarding all fourteen of the accreditation standards. Five days later, the official written report arrived, and included valuable recommendations for taking the DAOM program to its next stages of excellence. We are all very excited that the site-visit was such a success, and that the University is moving forward on its quest for accreditation of the DAOM program.