Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Health Professions
 
Board
Board of Physical Therapy
 
chapter
Regulations Governing the Practice of Physical Therapy [18 VAC 112 ‑ 20]
Action Practice of dry needling
Stage NOIRA
Comment Period Ended on 12/30/2015
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12/15/15  4:33 pm
Commenter: Marcia Morrison LAc MTCM

Dangers to public safety with lack of education.
 
Medical Doctors and Chiropractors receive 300 hours of training. I have 3700 hours of clinical and academic training over the pre-med undergraduate requirements. I received 60 hours of continuing education every 3 years. This is for the safety of those who choose acupuncture. There is no difference in dry needling and acupuncture, except education. I also have no problem with PTs practing acupuncture with proper training. In acupuncture alone, I received 750 hours of supervised clinical experience before working on clients alone. This is an important process and should not be taken lightly. To define acupuncture as dry needling is a nice loop hole and semantics, billing is done as manual therapy instead of using acupuncture coding. I wish that PTs be required a proper education, through certified acupuncture schools or programs to ensure the safety of the public.
CommentID: 44407