Ancient Medicine Modern Choice � A First for New Zealand Acupuncture.

 Acupuncture has been practiced as an alternative therapy in New Zealand since the mid 1970s. The New Zealand School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine has been training acupuncture professionals since 1989 at its Wellington and Auckland campuses. In 2007 the Ministry of Health approved the profession of acupuncture to be a regulated health profession under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. This means that acupuncture will be classified as a recognised health profession along with Nurses, Dentists, and Chiropractors etc. It is expected that New Zealand will follow the example of other countries by requiring the minimum standard for acupuncture professionals to be a Bachelor degree.

In a parliamentary press release in 2007, Dr Michael Cullen reported that New Zealand had acceded to the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications. This means that New Zealand Qualifications will now have equivalent status in each of the 50 signatory countries which include Australia, USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. Providing that acupuncturists meet the minimum national academic requirement then these countries will no longer require acupuncturists to requalify in order to practice in that country.

In 2006 the school embarked on its most ambitious project which was to develop an acupuncture Bachelor degree and have this approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). The school attained its objective and on 1 April 2008 NZQA advised that the school had been authorized to deliver a Bachelor of Health Science (Acupuncture) qualification.

New Zealand acupuncturists will be able to gain a Bachelor degree which meets international standards when the New Zealand School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine commences its four year degree course in 2009. Acupuncturists who currently have a Diploma will soon be able to convert to the Bachelor degree qualification by completing transition examination papers. The school is a member of the New Zealand Association of Private Education Providers and is an NZQA accredited provider.

The Directors and Staff of the New Zealand School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine are delighted that several years of hard work has come to fruition. They have received numerous messages of congratulations from the New Zealand Register of Acupuncturists and elsewhere within New Zealand and from overseas. Although it is a relatively small Private Training Establishment, their achievement shows that quality education can be achieved in a niche market on an international scale.

visit http://www.acupuncture.co.nz/