When you think about the acupuncture profession in the United States, promise and potential come to mind – but unfortunately, so does disharmony. We see differences and divisions everywhere: differences in technique, education / training, how to practice, documentation, interaction with other health care providers, how to advance the profession – even whether we need to advance it at all.
Why It Matters
Why is creating a culture of caring so vital? Because a strong, unified, organized profession with high, uniform standards of care is not only what every patient deserves; it's what every member of the profession deserves. That culture of care among acupuncture practitioners, organizations and schools brings true credibility and advancement opportunities to our profession.
But to get there, each and every practitioner has to answer the bigger question first: Am I willing to give up, compromise, modify or change my opinion or my way of doing things to help the profession as a whole?
There must be an agreement about the future of the profession and the professionals within the profession. How we move forward can be under discussion as long as moving forward is the first step.
I hope we all can agree on one thing: Educated, licensed and nationally certified acupuncturists are the workforce that should be delivering acupuncture treatments in the U.S. That is our starting point for advancing practices and the profession.
If we don't have uniform standards for education and practice, we will never be treated as a unified profession by patients or the health care stakeholders who can help us advance. The profession needs an agreed-upon title and education standard based on competencies, not hours. The profession needs to make friends with one another, other professions and legislators, and use common talking points to describe our medicine. This is a profession-wide need, but it starts on the grassroots level, in your community.
It All Starts With You
What's your community look like in terms of this culture of caring? Are you friends with other local acupuncturists – or do you treat one another as competition? Are your standards of care widely divergent, such that patients aren't sure what "acupuncturist" means? Do local medical doctors understand your medicine and how you can help their patients – or are you avoiding referral relationships, hoping patients will choose you over "them"? Unknowingly, you may be contributing to the very divisions that make our much-needed culture of caring so challenging to achieve.
It's Time to Open the Doors
This doesn't mean every acupuncturist needs to be a robot. It does mean that if we don't represent a unified, standardized culture of caring, no one will take us seriously. (The chiropractic profession has experienced similar growing pains, with multiple national associations, techniques, schools of thought and infighting that often confuse patients and potential patients, not to mention legislators.)
We need to care about each other more. We need to care about advancing our profession more. We need to care about uniform educational and practice standards more. That's how we create a culture of caring; one that opens the doors to share our medicine with more people in need. And isn't that our ultimate goal?
Click here for more information about Marilyn Allen, Editor-at-Large.