A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Simone Ormsby, BSc, BHSc, PhD
Dr. Simone Ormsby has an Honours Degree in Molecular Biology/Genetics; a Bachelor of Health Science in Chinese Medicine (acupuncture); and a Higher Degree by Research PhD. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and NICM Health Research Institute; an adjunct fellow at the NICM Health and Research Institute; and co-lead of the SARs Basic Science Special Interest Group, for which she writes newsletter snapshots of acupuncture mechanistic investigations.