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Acupuncturists

  • Bright Outlook
  • Rapid Growth

Diagnose, treat, and prevent disorders by stimulating specific acupuncture points within the body using acupuncture needles. May also use cups, nutritional supplements, therapeutic massage, acupressure, and other alternative health therapies.

What you’d do

  • Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental, and infection control policies and procedures.
  • Treat patients using tools, such as needles, cups, ear balls, seeds, pellets, or nutritional supplements.
  • Adhere to local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and statutes.
  • Identify correct anatomical and proportional point locations based on patients' anatomy and positions, contraindications, and precautions related to treatments, such as intradermal needles, moxibustion, electricity, guasha, or bleeding.
  • Develop individual treatment plans and strategies.
  • Insert needles to provide acupuncture treatment.
  • Evaluate treatment outcomes and recommend new or altered treatments as necessary to further promote, restore, or maintain health.
  • Collect medical histories and general health and lifestyle information from patients.

Skills that matter

  • Active Listening
  • Critical Thinking
  • Service Orientation
  • Social Perceptiveness
  • Speaking
  • Judgment and Decision Making

How to get there

Extensive preparation: most need graduate school, such as a master's degree or higher

Also called

  • Acupuncture Physician
  • Acupuncturist
  • Herbalist
  • Licensed Acupuncturist (LAC)
  • Acupuncture Doctor
  • Acupuncture Provider

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