| After nine months and five meetings, the California Acupuncture Board Task Force on Professional Competencies and Educational Outcomes finally delivered its formal recommendations to the Board. The following is a cover letter from Dr. Gary Klapman, former Board member, and Chair of the Task Force. |
| (see new proposed curriculum) |
| ==================================================== |
| Cover Letter to the Board |
| April 24, 2002 |
| Task Force on Competencies and Outcomes |
| (Recommendations to the Acupuncture Board) |
| Coherence in any body defines the road to health. |
| The acupuncture community in California is smiling. The disparate groups representing the schools and the practitioners who have been fighting during recent years have come together. The Task Force on Competencies and Outcomes has concluded its work after six months and has given birth to a new direction. We have outlined a list of curriculum subject matter that addresses competencies from seven didactic areas in addition to clinical practice that require 3000 hours of education at an approved school for an entry-level practitioner in California. |
| The Task Force recognizes the dynamic nature of this profession with the doctorate program soon to be implemented, and the need to establish hospital affiliations and better working relationships with other healthcare professionals and our patients. This is but one step on a long path that will help develop unity and allow diversity in a profession destined to continue making significant contributions to safe and effective healthcare for the people of California. |
| The Task Force would like to emphasize to the Board two important accomplishments. Firstly, we have completed our commitment to establish competencies and the hours necessary to fulfill them for an entry-level practitioner. Secondly, and with no less importance, we have collaborated successfully through arduous struggle and dialogue. We have come together by uniting our efforts in a creative spirit to accomplish our task. We hope these steps will provide direction and encouragement for the schools and the practitioners to continue to cooperate in such a familial spirit. We trust our recommendations to you will be considered with such reverence. |
| Although the Task Force has been successful the result is not a mandate. The compromising that has been done is certainly a testament, given the strength of the positions held by each member. The final vote on the number of hours required to fulfill the competencies was split and it took the chair to break this tie. Some schools would have preferred 2800 hours to allow 1200 hours to separate the Masters from the Doctorate degree even though our work relates only to the requirements for licensure not for degree requirement. The profession itself would have preferred a 3200-4000 hour entry standard for licensure, so the 3000 hours represents a compromise resolution. Also, some feel that certain knowledge skills, abilities, and competencies were not as well delineated as they could have been, time constraining. Instead, broader domains of education were identified and that areas of weakness in the curricula remain to be further clarified. It was clear from the beginning, however, that this Task Force was to pay attention to competencies and outcomes while framing this final report in a unique blend of skills and curricula content that the Board can apply to existing regulation. |
| We thank the Board for authorizing and supporting our work. As great efforts are concluded so new ones are born that can carry the Spirit to all levels of this profession. |
| We would also like to appreciate in a very public manner the immense help we were given by Marilyn Nielsen and her staff, Nancy Molinar for facilitating part of our last day, and Pam Rivette, who brought us through our beginnings by providing strong support and direction and a constancy to our purpose. |
| Enclosed is the list of competencies and the breakdown of the hours expected to fulfill them. |
| Sincerely, |
| Gary Klapman, M.D., L.Ac. Chair |
| Ta Fang Chen, L.Ac. (CAMA, CAOMA) |
| David Lee, Emperor's College, Santa Monica |
| Benjamin Dierauf, L.Ac. (CSOMA) |
| Raymond Victorio, American College of TCM, San Francisco |
| Lloyd Wright, L.Ac., Former Cal.Ac.Board Member, VP Guild |
| Tom Haines, Pacific College of OM, San Diego |
| Brian Fennen, L.Ac. (CAOMA, AAOM) |
| Katsuyuki Sakamoto, Samra University, Los Angeles |
| Andrew Cho, South Baylo University, Los Angeles |
| Kuk Yui Choi, L.Ac. (AKOMAC) |
| Lam Kong, L.Ac. (CCAA) |
| Liza Goldblatt, Oregon College of OM/CCAOM |
| Ted Priebe, L.Ac. (Guild) |
| Robert Rodriguez, Dong-guk Royal University, Los Angeles |
| Brian Loh, L.Ac. (UCPCM) |
| Yi-Chun Hsieh, Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences, Oakland |
| Neal Miller, L.Ac. (CSOMA) |
| Steven Given, Bastyr University, CCAOM |
| Ron Zaidman, Five Branches Institute, Santa Cruz |
| ==================================== |
| Attached: new proposed curriculum |