The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) is offering a route to achieve national certification—without having to take any of the NCCAOM exams. This is specifically for California licensed acupuncturists that meet the eligibility requirements.
Who is Eligible?
This option will be available the first quarter of 2019, and will close on December 31, 2020. Eligibility requirements for initial certification are as follows:
Once certification is achieved, the Diplomate must recertify every four years, and meet all recertification requirements in place at that time. Information concerning current NCCAOM recertification requirements can be found at www.nccaom.org/diplomates/certification-renewal/.
Why the Change?
Over the years (and especially more recently) the NCCAOM has received numerous requests from California licensed acupuncturists inquiring about a route to NCCAOM certification, without having to take the required NCCAOM examinations. In 2016, NCCAOM's accrediting agency for its three certification programs, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), revised their accreditation standards.
There is now a new provision for demonstrating that another certification or licensing program is substantially equivalent to an NCCA accredited certification program. Also in 2016 at the February 26 CAB Meeting, the California Department of Consumer Affairs' Office of Professional Examination Services (OPES) provided their commissioned report, Review of the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Examinations within the CAB Board Meeting Agenda Materials.
The purpose of the OPES review was to evaluate the suitability of the NCCAOM examinations as part of the requirements for licensure as an acupuncturist in California. This review was conducted jointly by OPES staff and two psychometric experts working as independent consultants (OPES Team).
Additionally, OPES convened a panel of licensed California acupuncturists to serve as subject-matter experts (SMEs) to review the content of each of the four NCCAOM examinations and to compare this content with the test plan for the California Acupuncture Licensure Examination (CALE), as based on the 2015 California Acupuncture Occupational Analysis (OA) performed by OPES.
Credentialing Standards
This empirical evidence of psychometric validity, reliability and fairness as well as demonstration of a "congruent" link between the content of the CALE and the NCCAOM national exam content, served as key criteria for the NCCAOM to demonstrate substantial equivalency of the two credentialing processes and standards. The completion of the thorough OPES review of the NCCAOM Certification program in OM also resulted in the CAB voting to unanimously recommend implement the NCCAOM certification exams for California licensure no earlier than 2019.
This linkage data, along with the documentation of the same additional certification and licensing requirement of requiring a current CNT certificate, and a minimum of 60 credits of CE every four years for NCCAOM certification provided the final evidence for substantial equivalency between the two programs, which led to the NCCA (National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) Board approving this new NCCAOM certification route.
This route is only open to those who have an active California acupuncture license, or those who have kept their California license active but live in another state. This route is not open to any newly California licensed acupuncturists who earned their CAB issued license after December 31, 2016.
Further announcements are to follow with details about the application process. For more information please visit NCCAOM.org.
Over my almost 30 years in clinical practice, I have used Chai Hu Long Gu Mu Li Tang extensively for a wide array of clinical presentations ranging from chronic headaches to anxiety, insomnia, and prescription drug withdrawal symptoms if these situations fit the appropriate patterns – all with extremely positive clinical outcomes.
There’s no doubt that many of your patients visit your practice because they are in pain. And there’s certainly no doubt that curcumin from turmeric (Curcuma longa) can be incredibly effective in stopping that pain, whether due to chronic conditions like arthritis or acute pain from intensive workouts. But your patients may also benefit from curcumin for other reasons.
| Digital Exclusive
Low back pain is defined as pain the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS), and it can be acute or chronic, localized or radiating. It is a common ailment for adults in the United States, with a lifetime prevalence as high as 65-80%. Whether or not an MRI is available to provide definitive knowledge of a structural issue, acupuncture can be an effective treatment for low back pain.
| Digital Exclusive