The acupuncture profession is already plagued by undertrained and unqualified people in other fields who wish to perform this medicine without the thousands of hours of training it takes to be fully safe and competent. For instance, there has been an ongoing battle with Physical Therapists taking a weekend course in “dry needling,” a trigger point release style of acupuncture. They are often the ones doing dry needling on athletes, and when they cause a serious injury to their patients, they conveniently start calling it acupuncture again. 

The idea that Athletic Trainers would be allowed to add acupuncture to their scope is even a bigger insult to the medicine and a danger to the public. Their main objective is to create physical training programs, teach proper exercise form, use these methods to prevent injuries in clients, and help tailor programs to those that are injured as they recover. ATs are already versed in collaborating with other health professionals to do what is within their scope of practice to integrate and get best results for their patients, so why are they not referring to fully trained and licensed acupuncturists as well? 

Acupuncture is much more than sticking a needling in a trigger point or where there is an injury. It is a fully comprehensive style of medicine that has a complex internal medicine diagnostic system which is sorely forgotten, dismissed, and overlooked by other professionals encroaching in our scope of practice. Licensed acupuncturists study in a 3-4 year masters program at minimum that includes thousands of hours of both Western medicine and Eastern medicine diagnostics, Acupoint location, needling methods and techniques, needle depth angling and safety (very important!), as well as clean needle technique. Even MD acupuncture programs are only 200 hours in comparison to an acupuncturist’s 2000-3000 hours. After graduation, we must take 3-4 state board exams and become licensed u der our state board of medicine.

None of these PTs, chiropractors, nor would Athletic Trainers would have enough training to fully understand how the points they are working on purely in a musculoskeletal manner would affect the internal medicine side of things. There is so much more to acupuncture than just treating muscle knots. It is a danger for the unknowing people to receive acupuncture from anyone but a licensed acupuncturist. As was determined in the state of PA regarding PTs, if they want to perform acupuncture, then they should go to an accredited acupuncture school, take the acupuncture boards, and receive an acupuncture license. The same should apply to ATs. If sports teams want their athletes to receive acupuncture, then they should hire one and not endanger their valuable athletes to undertrained, unqualified, and unlicensed people like PTs and ATs doing a very poor and potentially dangerous version of acupuncture. Thank you for your time.