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【medical-news】Position Summary on Acupuncture Education i

Position Summary on Acupuncture Education in the UK
The seemingly simple task of delineating the current strands of UK
acupuncture education is more complicated than first appears to be the case.
The situation is not much changed from the 2003 Acupuncture Regulatory
Working Group Report (ARWG 2003); there is still a diversity of training and
professional application of acupuncture skills in the UK. The current increased
membership of the Acupuncture Stakeholders Group has only added to the
mix. Outcome standards within this context can only be judged as equivalent
educational levels. Thus we have a spectrum ranging from a relatively simple
certificate of competence to a Masters Degree. The key phrase in the ARWG
executive summary was “in the professional context within which they work”,
indicating that the educational outcomes may not be the best way to
understand differences in practice.
There is a clear division between those who wish to become professional
traditional acupuncturists and undertake a full UK-degree programme to
accomplish this and those who, already trained in one of the regulated health
professions within the NHS, wish to add a form of acupuncture as an
intervention to be used within their profession’s scope of practice. The
acupuncture training for the second group will, of necessity, be of a
postgraduate nature. The register will need to recognise these discrete
groups. It would be possible to count the hours of training but wide
variations in the quality, the proportions of taught to self-directed learning
and, indeed, the precise aspects of the subjects encompassed makes this at
best inaccurate and at worst misleading to members of the public.
The following is a summary of the developing educational situation within the
acupuncture profession and reflects the diversity of styles and forms of
delivery. It can be divided into three main categories; that of undergraduate
provision leading to a recognised BSc in acupuncture offered by several
universities in the UK; that offered as a postgraduate Western Medical
Acupuncture qualification, presently ranging from Certificate to MSc
programmes, for statutory healthcare regulated professionals who hold
recognised qualifications in medicine/dentistry/nursing/physiotherapy and
other related medical disciplines within the National Health Service; and
thirdly, training offered to non-medically qualified persons who have opted to
undertake shorter, non-academic courses.
1. BSc Acupuncture Qualification
The undergraduate training validated and supervised by the British
Acupuncture Accreditation Board (BAA is delivered through a number of UK
universities and has thus been validated by both the UK advanced education
system and the acupuncture professional body, the British Acupuncture
Council (BAcC).

This, clearly, will form the qualification for a high proportion of acupuncture
practitioners when the new register is opened and will fit easily with the basic
standard required by the HPC.
There is also a smaller group, represented by the Acupuncture Society, which
currently runs a professional training course like the combined acupuncture
and Chinese herbal course at the College of Chinese Medicine (CCM) which,
although at degree level, is not yet linked to or validated by a university.
2. Additional Postgraduate Training
This training is usually undertaken as a post registration qualification and
may require different standards. Acupuncture used by these professionals is
premised on the scope of practice of the primary discipline and cannot be
adequately offered without the basic professional qualification to support it.
The appropriate acupuncture qualification, therefore, ranges from a
certificate of competence to a university validated MSc.
Most of this group are already working in the NHS and include doctors,
physiotherapists, nurses and dentists. Since they are all, of necessity,
already regulated by an existing body, the General Medical Council (GMC),
the Health Professions Council (HPC), and the Nursing and Midwifery Council
(NMC) etc, the fundamental degree educational qualification is already
subject to regulation. Another characteristic of the education for this group,
particularly that of the doctors, nurses and physiotherapists, is the emphasis
on the research base, necessary to justify the use of acupuncture within the
NHS.
Recent work undertaken to formulate National Occupational Standards (NOS)
has established professional acupuncture competences. Compliance with
these is inherent in all the forms of training although it may be supported by
different and profession-specific definitions of the knowledge and
understanding of acupuncture required to practise.
3. Training Limited by Micro-System or Specific Application
This category includes many of the ear-acupuncture practitioners, particularly
those utilising the NADA (National Acupuncture Detoxification Association),

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作者:admin@医学,生命科学    2010-12-02 17:11
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