[tsunami62]

Hi there,

I am going into my first year of nursing school and previously did my training as an acupuncturist/ TCM practitioner for 5 years in Victoria, BC. I'm wondering if there is a particularly well fitting area for me to specialize in, where my background will be usefull. any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated!!

[texasnursingstudent]

i don't see how it would hurt. a lot of places, such as the University of Texas at Austin, offer a master's degree in nursing with an emphasis on holistic nursing. there are plenty of places that want holistic, mind-body type of care for patients. check them out! you can also look on discovernursing.com, they might have something!

[tsunami62]

is the holistic nursing a general area of nurse work, is it usually hospital settings? also, I'm curious if one or two particular areas of nursing (like L&D for example) would be interested in a nurse having acupuncture skills. maybe like stroke rehab/ neuro patients, they could benefit from acupuncture for sure..... but would I be allowed to do it?

[nj1grlcrus]

and definitely any area where pain is involved, you could do a great job helping pts manage pain, it sounds like a great asset to me

[zenman]

Yep, pain management and any hospital that has an integrative medicine dept.

[tsunami62]

is there hospitals that have integrated medicine? can a nurse administer something like acupuncture? I'm not sure at all how it would work.... I haven't even started school yet for nursing

[zenman]

Originally Posted by tsunami62

is there hospitals that have integrated medicine? can a nurse administer something like acupuncture? I'm not sure at all how it would work.... I haven't even started school yet for nursing

Quite a few hospitals have integrative med depts. Even if you were a nurse, you'd be working under your acupuncture license for the needling part.