Acupuncture and Nursing?

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Opinions and stories, please:

I am a fairly new RN, just about three years now. I started on Med-Surg and went to the ED just about a year ago. I have a BSN and graduated in 2010. I started in healthcare as an acupuncturist, earning a Master of Acupuncture degree in 2002. I was in private practice up until a year ago.

For a number of reasons, I have decided to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner. I think I would also be able to practice acupuncture under my acupuncture license as a nurse practitioner, and that is what I am going for; to be able to make these two jobs into one so that I am not so fragmented in my professional life.

Would like to know if any of you either are LAc/RNs or know of any and how that's working out for them. Think there might be a future in this?

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Specializes in Adult Nurse Practitioner.

The ones I know went from RN to LAc and combine the two under the LAc licenst. I really don't know of any who are NPs and also LAcs, but I would think if you have your certification as a LAc, you should be able to utilize it as an NP. That being said, if you are in a state that requires a collaborative physician, I would definitely contact the BON to find out how that is going to affect your practice.

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Make sure you have to cover both licenses.

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I have always carried on my LAc.

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Hi,

I'm an acupuncturist looking into going back to school to be a CNM. How was it balancing going back to school and keeping your acu practice going? I think more people are looking for integrative medicine, how nice to be able to offer the best of both worlds!

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You may contact at acupuncture Fairfax VA, I am taking treatment from there and I am quite satisfied from these doctors. They will provide you good assitance.

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Specializes in Reproductive & Public Health.

This is an honest question and I don't mean any offense . As an NP or RN, how do you square the data/evidence regarding acupuncture's efficacy (or lack thereof) with your obligation to provide science - based care?

There appears to be some limited evidence that acupuncture can help with pain (is it a coincidence that pain is more responsive to the contextual/placebo effects than other conditions or symptoms). But idk. It seems unethical to accept compensation for an intervention that has been widely shown to be ineffective.

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Specializes in Tele, OB, public health.
This is an honest question and I don't mean any offense . As an NP or RN, how do you square the data/evidence regarding acupuncture's efficacy (or lack thereof) with your obligation to provide science - based care?

There appears to be some limited evidence that acupuncture can help with pain (is it a coincidence that pain is more responsive to the contextual/placebo effects than other conditions or symptoms). But idk. It seems unethical to accept compensation for an intervention that has been widely shown to be ineffective.

ALL OF THIS

As a licensed NP or RN, you must commit to evidence based practice.

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Dear Cayenne06 and Dinah77,

I too am an acupuncturist about to become a nurse. While practicing acupuncture simultaneously as a nurse or nurse practitioner will not be practical in most settings, the science / evidence based approach of nursing should not negate the positive effect on patient outcomes that acupuncture can provide. Over the past eleven years, I have seen acupuncture reliably help patients undergoing chemotherapy to have less nausea, fatigue, and pain. I have helped patients recover from many with orthopedic injuries including disc herniations, radiculopathies, arthritis, and many types of tendinitis. For anxiety and panic disorders, I have helped many patients resolve their symptoms without meds. As a nurse and later as a nurse practitioner, I look forward to recommending acupuncture in situations when it could be helpful. It is no accident that acupuncture departments are more and more common in American hospitals including Memorial Sloan Kettering and many others.

Here is an article about an analysis of nearly 18,000 patients in the Archives of Internal Medicine that shows acupuncture is indeed effective for pain.

This story highlights a cancer center in Florida that uses acupuncture to among other things, reduce the risk of permanent neuropathies.

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Specializes in critical care.

Anecdote.....

I have spondylolisthesis, which was discovered in 2012 after a fall. I fought muscle spasms for nearly a year before turning to acupuncture. I believe that should be long enough to discount placebo effect. I had noticeable improvement after my first treatment, incredible improvement in quality of life after the second, and have had my pain under control 90% of the time since my third or fourth.

I initially turned to acupuncture, though, after trying IVF and having an unsuccessful embryo transfer. The second transfer, I started acupuncture at the same time as starting meds. On the exact same medication protocol, and changing absolutely nothing else in my life, I had a 25% thicker endometrial lining than at the first transfer. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but I only tried it at the suggestion of my midwife, who handed me a newspaper clipping saying that studies were showing acupuncture to be effective at boosting IVF success rates. My first treatment ever, I was laying on the table thinking, "okay, really.....? There is no way this actually does something...." It did, though. (As evidenced by two little monkeys :))

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Hi I know this is an old post, but I was just curious how everything turned out for you going from acupuncture to nursing. I’ve been working as an acupuncturist for the past 10 years and am now considering a career change to nursing. I’ve been looking into accelerated BSN programs in my area. I would love to hear more about your experience if possible! Thank you

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Curious about the same, how did things end up going for you? On a similar path myself.

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