Acupuncturist

Job Description:

• Provide treatment of symptoms and disorders using needles and small electrical currents. May provide massage treatment. May also provide preventive treatments.

Duties and Tasks:

• 1) Formulate herbal preparations to treat conditions considering herbal properties such as taste, toxicity, effects of preparation, contraindications, and incompatibilities.
• 2) Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental and infection control policies and procedures.
• 3) Maintain detailed and complete records of health care plans and prognoses.
• 4) Adhere to local, state and federal laws, regulations and statutes.
• 5) Assess patients’ general physical appearance to make diagnoses.
• 6) Collect medical histories and general health and life style information from patients.
• 7) Dispense herbal formulas and inform patients of dosages and frequencies, treatment duration, possible side effects and drug interactions.
• 8) Consider Western medical procedures in health assessment, health care team communication, and care referrals.
• 9) Treat patients using tools such as needles, cups, ear balls, seeds, pellets, and nutritional supplements.
• 10) Educate patients on topics such as meditation, ergonomics, stretching, exercise, nutrition, the healing process, breathing, and relaxation techniques.
• 11) Evaluate treatment outcomes and recommend new or altered treatments as necessary to further promote, restore, or maintain health.
• 12) Apply moxibustion directly or indirectly to patients using Chinese, non-scarring, stick, or pole moxa.
• 13) Apply heat or cold therapy to patients using materials such as heat pads, hydrocollator packs, warm compresses, cold compresses, heat lamps, and vapor coolants.
• 14) Analyze physical findings and medical histories to make diagnoses according to Oriental medicine traditions.
• 15) Develop individual treatment plans and strategies.
• 16) Treat medical conditions using techniques such as acupressure, shiatsu, and tuina.
• 17) Insert needles to provide acupuncture treatment.
• 18) Identify correct anatomical and proportional point locations based on patients’ anatomy and positions, contraindications, and precautions related to treatments such as intradermal needles, moxibution, electricity, guasha, and bleeding.

Activities:

• 1) Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• 2) Making Decisions and Solving Problems — Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• 3) Communicating with Persons Outside Organization — Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
• 4) Performing General Physical Activities — Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
• 5) Performing  for or Working Directly with the Public — Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
• 6) Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
• 7) Documenting/Recording Information — Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
• 8) Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events — Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• 9) Judging the Qualities of Things, Services, or People — Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
• 10) Processing Information — Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
• 11) Thinking Creatively — Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
• 12) Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge — Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
• 13) Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others — Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
• 14) Provide Consultation and Advice to Others — Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.
• 15) Monitor Processes, Materials, or Surroundings — Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
• 16) Assisting and Caring for Others — Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
• 17) Developing Objectives and Strategies — Establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.
• 18) Analyzing Data or Information — Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.

Abilities:

• 1) Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand
• 2) Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• 3) Written Comprehension — The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• 4) Written Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• 5) Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• 6) Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• 7) Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• 8) Information Ordering — The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• 9) Near Vision — The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• 10) Inductive Reasoning — The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• 11) Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  
• 12) Finger Dexterity — The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
• 13) Arm-Hand Steadiness — The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
• 14) Flexibility of Closure — The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
• 15) Category Flexibility — The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.

Knowledge

• 1) Medicine and Dentistry — Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• 2) Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• 3) Therapy and Counseling — Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• 4) Psychology — Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• 5) English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Definition: