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Medical Acupuncture Courses Are Not Producing Fully Trained Acupuncturists
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Many states allow physicians, chiropractors, physician’s assistants, physical therapists and dentists to practice acupuncture with only 300 hours of training. This is a relic of 1974, when little was known about acupuncture practice and education.
The 300-hour course for MD’s was designed to give medical researchers the appropriate background necessary to develop and interpret studies on acupuncture. The Medical Acupuncture certification was NOT designed to meet the educational requirements and training necessary to treat patients.
Thirty years later, minimum entry-level standards of competence for acupuncture have evolved, producing fully-trained, effective acupuncturists. Why haven’t educational standards for physicians and dentists been updated to reflect current requirements? And why would anyone want to extend the same inadequate, outdated 300-hour requirement to other health professionals?
If someone, anyone, wishes to practice acupuncture or any other form of healthcare, they should be properly trained and prove their competency before treating the public. Acupuncturists could not hope to practice podiatry or chiropractic with 300 hours of training and no standards of competency. Why would the reverse be different? *5
*5 Acupuncture Society of New York, www.asny.org
Kath Bartlett, MS, LAc
Asheville Center for Chinese Medicine
70 Woodfin Place Suite West Wing Two
Asheville, North Carolina 28801 828.258.2777
kbartlett@AcupunctureAsheville.com
www.AcupunctureAsheville.com
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January 6th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Yes, I don’t believe they should be allowed to practice with such a short course. That doesn’t even give them time to understand the most basic underpinnings of the paradigm upon which acupuncture is based. How can you possibly use it effectively without fully understanding Oriental medical theory? It’s impossible. They might be able to practice some very shallow techniques, based strictly on formulas, what I call “cookbook medicine,” but since that is the sort of medicine most physicians practice, I suppose it’s not surprising they think nothing of practicing something they barely understand. I can talk about this because not only was my father a physician, so is my brother, and several of my cousins, and virtually all of my high school friends and half of my college friends. There is an arrogance to MDs that is unwarranted. They may know anatomy and physiology, but they really understand nothing else. Chinese medicine is a broad and deep subject, going back 5,000 years, and while TCM is a simplification of this tradition, it is still based on this ancient and highly developed and long-recorded medicine. There is no way they could have more than a superficial understanding of the use of acupuncture points in only 300 hours of coursework. Ridiculous!
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February 9th, 2009 at 6:57 am
There is a case for international as well as national standards for acupuncture and other forms of alternative or complementary medicine
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August 24th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I love Missouri, there are more Chiro’s doing acupuncture than there are licensed L.Ac’s.
D.C’s own it! You jealous bastards !!!
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