Other states allow athletic trainers to dry needle. It greatly improves access to care for so many individuals. It’s not as if they are untrained and going in blindly. Take NC for example, just to the south. The requirement is to take a course offering 50 credit hours frequently split over 2 weekends, with multiple checks on safety and proper usage throughout that course. This rigor ensures proper utilization is taught and demonstrated. Utilization of the skills does not impede upon acupuncturists, as suggested, because dry needling isn’t acupuncture. The courses specifically discuss this and encourage patient education as to the proper usage of dry needling to ensure that athletic trainers are not providing unauthorized acupuncture. They simply use the same needle, but the goals of the treatments are completely different otherwise. 

As someone who dry needles now in NC, I cannot express how game changing it has been for my patients. I have many who indicate that the treatments have been such a game changer for their chronic musculoskeletal complaints. I don’t over utilize it, “sticking people just to do it”. It’s all in clinical acumen and deliberate clinical reason that allows me to use this modality. I firmly believe that with proper EDUCATION, athletic trainers should be able to utilize dry needling for their patients.