Currently, over 4,000 students are enrolled in acupuncture and Oriental medical colleges in the United States, and the majority of U.S. medical schools now offer courses on complementary medicine. According to the American Association of Oriental Medicine, an estimated 12,000 nationally certified acupuncturists were practicing in the United States in 1998.
In most states, acupuncturists are considered independent or primary care providers. This responsibility requires extensive training. With over forty acupuncture colleges being accredited or in candidacy status in the United States, choosing where to pursue a career in Oriental medicine is becoming more of a challenge. Pacific College, one of the nation’s largest and most prominent schools of Oriental medicine, has established a curriculum of over 3,000 hours of training, offering an accredited Master of Science in Acupuncture and Traditional Oriental Medicine degree.
Acupuncture, herbal medicine, anatomy, Oriental body therapy, biosciences, Qi Gong and Tai Chi form a curriculum allowing students to learn to view health and disease from both Western and traditional Asian holistic perspectives.
In this particular program, the fundamentals of all aspects of traditional Oriental medicine are introduced in the first academic year and prepare the student for the clinical assistantship experience. The educational approach emphasizes integration and synergy of subject matter. Treatment, diagnosis, and prescription are introduced and practiced from the beginning of the program. As students sharpen their mental and physical diagnostic skills, Tai Ji and Qi Gong benefit their health and sensitivity. Students learn Tui Na (Chinese medical massage), the Chinese equivalent of physical therapy, along with many powerful, non-invasive acupuncture techniques such as moxibustion and cupping.
As a Clinical Assistant in the second year of the program, the student works as part of a medical team comprising other assistants, interns, and Licensed Acupuncturists. In off-site internships, the team may be expanded to include medical students, medical doctors, nurse practitioners, athletic trainers, physical therapists, and counselors, depending on the facility. The student gets hands-on experience helping people with holistic and Oriental methods of treatment while interfacing with allied health care colleagues.
Clinical Assistantship consists of almost 400 hours of training and provides the student with the opportunity to assist in, and become familiar with, all aspects of an Oriental medical clinic. Clinical assistants assist interns and private practitioners by performing orthopedic evaluations, charting herb formulas, and performing moxibustion, cupping, massage, other non-invasive acupuncture techniques, and closely supervised needling. The clinical experience prepares the student for the responsibility of accepting their own patients as an intern in the third year.
The second year’s classroom experience leads to a more in-depth understanding of the practice of acupuncture, Oriental medicine and biomedicine. Advanced needling techniques and advanced herbal prescriptions and modifications are practiced. The student is introduced to and required to apply the principles of self-directed learning and life-long learning skills that will be necessary in private practice. These are the skills that distinguishing one as capable of interfacing with the wider medical community as an independent practitioner. The curriculum emphasizes the integration and application of Chinese medicine, biomedicine and research skills to support clinical reasoning.
In the third and forth years, much classroom time is spent discussing clinical cases. Medical understanding deepens and the student embodies and assimilates the fine points of their art. Over two years of study and practice are challenged and refined by treating real patients in Clinical Internship. Intern activities include the formulation of diagnosis, treatment plan, and prognosis, and the implementation of treatment for a wide variety of individual patients.
Students are guided to develop and maintain the highest standards of professionalism and responsibility for patients until such standards become habits. Students master the principles of Oriental herbal and acupuncture treatment and directly experience the result of their studies when their patients’ conditions improve. The Clinical Internship program provides almost 600 hours of training, during which time an intern will have participated in at least 250 patient visits. With total of over 1000 hours of training in the college’s clinic, as well as internships at local clinics & hospitals, students develop acupuncture techniques, evaluation and diagnosis skills, professional conduct, and confidence in practice.
All Pacific’s Master’s-level programs lead to primary health-care competence in the field of Oriental medicine, enabling graduates to take licensure and certification examinations and become an integral part of the modern health care system. Pacific’s record of students passing state and national examinations is among the best in the nation. Graduates typically build a private practice as associates in established clinics. Others are hired by multidisciplinary clinics and work alongside medical doctors, chiropractors and others.
The widening acceptance of Oriental medicine by allied health care providers can be seen by the integration of acupuncture and Oriental medicine in community health centers across the country. Pacific College engages in active cooperation in this integration with the wider medical community in the cities it serves. In a dozen facilities, student interns use acupuncture to treat a variety of disorders from tobacco cessation to pain in terminally ill patients. Most clinics are low cost and offer patients acupuncture as an effective means of treatment in addition to basic Western medical care. Many of the clinics service prisoners, ex-offenders, homeless and HIV-positive populations. At facilities such as Yonkers Community Hospital and University of California-San Diego, Pacific interns work in conjunction with medical personnel treating pain and related symptoms.
To provide its student body personal access to the authors and researchers of Oriental and holistic medicine, Pacific College organizes the annual Pacific Symposium. The finest speakers from around the world, including Ted Kaptchuk and Giovanni Maciocia, join students and hundreds of licensed acupuncturists for 8 days of learning and sharing. Pacific Symposium is recognized as the leading continuing education event in the profession.
Pacific College’s mission is to critically assess and present the theories and practices of Oriental medicine, together with its traditional and modern derivations, in order that its graduates may deliver effective patient care. The purpose of the Master’s program of Acupuncture and Traditional Oriental Medicine is to train practitioners of Oriental medicine and to enable them to function as primary, independent health care providers. The programs are open to applicants who have prior undergraduate study that indicates the ability to undertake graduate level work as well as those demonstrating the necessary maturity and interest in the field.
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine is at the forefront of offering accredited graduate programs as a means of entering this growing profession. The College, founded in 1986, has established campuses in San Diego, New York and Chicago. Pacific College President and licensed acupuncturist, Jack Miller, has noted that “the campuses are strategically situated to attract the current and future leaders of Oriental medicine from Europe, the Far East, and the Americas.” Pacific College is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, which is recognized by the United States Department of Education.
About the Author
Rebecca Wilkowski is a health writer and the Director of Public Relations & Advertising for Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. For more information on Oriental medicine, please call (800) 729-0941 or go to www.ormed.edu.