I liked this commentator’s view from the trenches so much that I’m reposting as an public service message. Keep in mind that acupuncture schools will pretty much accept ANYONE with money — even if they clearly can’t cut it intellectually. I find this to be absolutely ‘ABHORRABLE’*!
Posted by goodmedicineforbadschools on July 2, 2012 at 5:59 pmedit
Thank you for the blog post. I think it is worth mentioning the behavior of those people in the acupuncture business making the largest incomes. These slicksters are engaged in businesses that have very little to do with the work of practicing medicine.
When the slicksters nominally practice acupuncture, they aim to hold onto wealthy clients who come in for relaxation, the quest to look younger, and their egomaniacal belief that they should be giving birth to children at an age when AARP is inviting them to join. They also sell their own lines of supplements, and work the seminar circuit for the sake of fleecing acupuncture students, other acupuncture practitioners, and the general public.
A very clear picture emerges when one spends enough time spent observing this profession. The person who has made a killing through acupuncture spends very little time treating disease and a great deal of time lifting wallets.
Real medicine is real work, western or eastern. The acupuncture schools, the (non-community) practice of acupuncture, and all the associated slimebags charging a fee to the student who has suckered themselves into this hell, are definitely not preparing people for work. The environment at acupuncture schools tells all. These businesses are demonstrating the parasitism, lack of professionalism, lack of regulation, and generally unhealthy environment that is the acupuncture business.
Denial of reality among students and acupuncturists is intense – and self-serving for the schools. Many students seem unable to accept that the schools are private businesses making money off of them. Basic reality is that acupuncture schools give their scam victim students, most of whom are unprepared for work in medicine, an abysmal education and a license to enter into a profession full of sleazy Sinophile con-artists. And then we all get to pay off the loans we took out to buy this bridge.
*’abhorrable’ is a made up word a PCOM acupuncture student used because she didn’t have the vocabulary to properly express herself. For more details, see my post titled Katie Tintz’s response when I followed up on Jason Morris’s suggestion.
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine NY Issues 