As an acupuncturist registered with the Board as a physiotherapist, are we required to register with the Chinese Medicine Board as well?
The Board’s position is that acupuncture falls inside the general physiotherapy scope of practice and can be performed by any physiotherapist with the appropriate skills and training as per the Defined Field Standard. However, physiotherapists who incorporate acupuncture in their practice will now need to be mindful that they do not hold themselves out as practitioners of Chinese medicine, particularly as that pertains to acupuncture, unless they also hold registration as a Chinese medicine practitioner with the Chinese Medicine Council of New Zealand.
Here is a link to the Defined Field Standard:
It’s not so much a question of the type of needling that you do but how you describe yourself when you do it – and whether that description implies you are a particular sort of registered health practitioner when you are not.
This isn’t advice, but: the belts-and-braces approach would be to dual register – as long as you meet your obligations as a physiotherapist and as a Chinese medicine practitioner (these shouldn’t conflict!) then you can’t go really go wrong. If you choose one or the other, though, you will need to be careful about how you describe yourself.