Been seeing this on my newsfeeds. This is what makes my profession look like it consists of a bunch of dum dums. This community acupuncture org sounds like an entitled, bratty, whiny little kid who thinks he/she should be treated like royalty. They want the NCCAOM, the org that does the board exams, to address the “ethical” issues of the profession by lowering tuition and lowering board exam cost because acupuncturists are poor as fuck.

1. You didn’t know how much acupuncture school would cost you despite signing off those loan papers? TOO BAD. Don’t go to acupuncture school. WTF are you thinking? Did you check income stats or how fucked up the profession is the US before applying? You should’ve know the debt you’d be having before going into school, not after. RESPONSIBILITY. English is my second language and I know what it means, do the hippies know?

2. Price is not the issue. Quality is. Considering the quality of education of this medicine in the US ranges from the shittiest of shit to just plain shit, a lot needs to be done. There are over 60 acupuncture schools in this country and none of them have a similar curriculum. Blame the shitty accreditation board for that. A lot of acupuncturists should not be able to treat people in my opinion. There are a lot of idiots out there tainting the profession as well as a lot of people who shouldn’t be teaching. The people who taint the profession are those who don’t improve their patient’s condition, refer when necessary, and/or explain the medicine in some esoteric hippie ass way no one in Asia does.

School wise, a lot of faculty in schools are pretty much people who couldn’t cut it in private practice and became TAs who moved up to teaching positions. There’s not many who do it for the love of the profession, but the ones that do, I admire. For real. After most of the schools get shut down, then there will be real competition for faculty positions.

"Community acupuncture isn’t half of something, with the rest of it missing -- it’s an entirely different something. POCA Tech is like that too -- we’re not just teaching the bare minimum of what we need to get through accreditation, we’re becoming something entirely different."

https://www.pocacoop.com/prick-prod-provoke/post/what-im-learning-in-acupuncture-school

Wait, you actually believe I live off one patient? Perhaps you don’t understand English, or didn’t bother reading. Like I said before, there is nothing wrong with treating at a lower than average price, just don’t cheapen the medicine and your patients like so many people already do. It’s not about PRICE. Get that through your heads. Why do I harp about you guys so much? Maybe I’ve worked in one of the POCA clinics before. Maybe I’m currently working in one. Maybe I’ve been a patient in various community clinics. Maybe my patients complain about you guys. Maybe I’m in your forums. Maybe I’m one of the people who were in the room when you presented your Poca Tech bullshit. Beats me.  

Naive? I think you should ask yourself if you too are naive. You preach the choir, but you don’t bother to actually evaluate patients. Though you will make the effort to passive aggressively throw insults my way(you must be from the West Coast). Students can be naive, I’ll give you that, but that’s why this satirical blog exists and why I’m involved in whatever it is that I do.

FYI, the way you worded your sentences sounds like you’re promoting a cult. I ask you guys to raise your standards and you like to ignore that talk by bringing up price and “treating” a lot of people. Then you go on saying community acupuncture is the future…There’s a reason why this medicine looks like a FUCKING joke to the public. I don’t care because supposedly I’m rich by treating one patient. 

Let’s also make some things clear:

1. We’re not friends. Don’t give me that shit.

2. I’m fuming here day and night? I’m the fucking Angry Acupuncturist. Of course I’ll fucking curse and sound angry. BUT, it seems like you guys are the ones fuming day and night over a supposed NOBODY with your incessant messages. Love them though. ^__^ I’ll get through all of them eventually. 

3.  ”Namaste”? Again? CULTURAL APPROPRIATION MUCH?

4. Business. THANK YOU for confirming about BUSINESS and using that as an excuse to do SHITTY work. I mean you guys already confirmed it with your mission statements and what not on your websites, but hey, it’s not about patients, it’s about a surviving business model right? Guess what numbnuts, you can run a business, do quality work, and still survive! It is possible! 

See, this goes back to my posts and QUALITY. It’s not how long the education is, it’s also the QUALITY of it. And yes the education is too little, You ever check out acupuncture forums where people ask questions with answers they should know? Go check out Acupuncturists on Facebook. That’s a fun one. 

Yea POCA bastardizes. You can promote the medicine, but if you’re treating it like shit along with your patients, what good does that do? Put up data that you’re actually helping people, or shut the fuck up. Here’s my challenge to you. I’m claiming all people do in those clinics is feel relaxed. It’s a side effect of acupuncture. Now everyone that comes in with low back pain, neck pain, etc… What kind of improvement do they see? I’m not talking about their subjective NRS, get some objective measures, and we’ll talk.