Stop Dry Needling/Acupuncture by Physical Therapists in Iowa
Stop Dry Needling/Acupuncture by Physical Therapists in Iowa
The Issue
Dry Needling is a re-branding of Acupuncture designed to avoid the licensure rules that guarantee that Acupuncture needles are used safely and effectively.
In Iowa, Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers are allowed to practice Dry Needling by their boards with as little as 24 hours of weekend training courses.
Help us protect the safety of the public by making sure people using acupuncture needles are properly trained experts in acupuncture.
In Iowa, persons other than graduate degree Licensed Acupuncturists are performing so called Dry Needling or Intramuscular Manual Therapy. These terms are a re-branding of an advanced acupuncture technique called "lifting & thrusting," that had been perfected over centuries by highly trained and experienced Acupuncturists. While it can help relieve pain, it can be a very dangerous technique with serious potential adverse effects such as punctured lungs and injured nerves.
It should only be practiced by highly trained, nationally certified professional Licensed Acupuncturists.
Check out these videos of Dry Needling:
This video is very disturbing. A Dry Needle instructor punctures the patient's lung. He is teaching a weekend course to non-acupuncturists who would go unsupervised to practice techniques such as this.
This video shows a Physical Therapist breaking multiple rules of sterile field and safe needling. She re-uses needles and wipes the blood off using her glove. This is what happens when an non-acupuncturist learns to use acupuncture needles in a weekend course.
Unfortunately, due to the new name, Dry Needling, this technique evades state licensure laws and a growing number of non-acupuncturists are taking weekend (24 hr) courses and practicing on patients without any proper education nor supervision.
In Iowa, the Iowa Boards of Physical and Occupational Therapy and Athletic Training have allowed this technique to grow among Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers by not restricting it to properly trained Licensed Acupuncturists.
The Iowa Association of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture needs your immediate help to convince the Physical Therapy board and the Athletic Board to restrict this technique.
We have created a formal petition for this decision and had our public hearing by the PT Board on September 11, 2015. We now have until October 26, 2015 to collect signatures and comments in support of our campaign.
Please sign and share this petition and voice your concerns in the comments.
If you are a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, or Athletic Trainer please mention that in your comments.
The Issue
Dry Needling is a re-branding of Acupuncture designed to avoid the licensure rules that guarantee that Acupuncture needles are used safely and effectively.
In Iowa, Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers are allowed to practice Dry Needling by their boards with as little as 24 hours of weekend training courses.
Help us protect the safety of the public by making sure people using acupuncture needles are properly trained experts in acupuncture.
In Iowa, persons other than graduate degree Licensed Acupuncturists are performing so called Dry Needling or Intramuscular Manual Therapy. These terms are a re-branding of an advanced acupuncture technique called "lifting & thrusting," that had been perfected over centuries by highly trained and experienced Acupuncturists. While it can help relieve pain, it can be a very dangerous technique with serious potential adverse effects such as punctured lungs and injured nerves.
It should only be practiced by highly trained, nationally certified professional Licensed Acupuncturists.
Check out these videos of Dry Needling:
This video is very disturbing. A Dry Needle instructor punctures the patient's lung. He is teaching a weekend course to non-acupuncturists who would go unsupervised to practice techniques such as this.
This video shows a Physical Therapist breaking multiple rules of sterile field and safe needling. She re-uses needles and wipes the blood off using her glove. This is what happens when an non-acupuncturist learns to use acupuncture needles in a weekend course.
Unfortunately, due to the new name, Dry Needling, this technique evades state licensure laws and a growing number of non-acupuncturists are taking weekend (24 hr) courses and practicing on patients without any proper education nor supervision.
In Iowa, the Iowa Boards of Physical and Occupational Therapy and Athletic Training have allowed this technique to grow among Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers by not restricting it to properly trained Licensed Acupuncturists.
The Iowa Association of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture needs your immediate help to convince the Physical Therapy board and the Athletic Board to restrict this technique.
We have created a formal petition for this decision and had our public hearing by the PT Board on September 11, 2015. We now have until October 26, 2015 to collect signatures and comments in support of our campaign.
Please sign and share this petition and voice your concerns in the comments.
If you are a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, or Athletic Trainer please mention that in your comments.
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Petition created on August 27, 2015