Medical Acupuncture, 15 credits

A minimum of 120 credits and a licence to practise issued by Socialstyrelsen as a occupational therapist, physiotherapist, doctor of medicine, nurse, or dentist. Or a licence to practise issued by Socialstyrelsen as a naprapath or chiropractor. And proficiency in Swedish and English equivalent to Swedish B/Swedish 3 and English A/English 6.

The course in medical acupuncture aims at achieving skills in integrating medical acupuncture as a treatment method for patients with pain in clinical practice.

Knowledge and understanding
On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• explain origin and modulation of pain from a physiological perspective.
• describe how medical acupuncture modulates the nervous system and influences physiological processes.
• describe, explain and motivate dosage, indications and contraindications, risks, legal aspects and keeping medical records as well as
• critically describe and review treatment principles from a physiological perspective.

Skills and abilities
On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• classify a given pain condition and explain the choice based on knowledge in pain physiology and known clinical findings and be able to apply principles of pain measurement and pain rating.
• independently plan, carry out and evaluate treatment with manual acupuncture/electroacupuncture in patients with different pain conditions.

Judgement and approach
On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• reflect on patients individual variations that can influence the pain experience, the planning and the implementation of the acupuncture treatment such as the effect of sex, age, physiological and psychological factors.
• reflect and evaluate design and performance analysis in scientific articles in the area of acupuncture.

The course is divided into four parts.

Part 1 contains:

Web-based lectures and studies in pain physiology, pain classification, endogenous pain modulatingsystems, placebo and nocebo as well as pain analysis and pain rating.

Part 2 contains:

Lectures, web-based lectures , clinical reasoning, peer-review and seminars/workshops/academic debate in for example acupuncture physiology, treatment principles, dosage, safety aspects, sham- and placebo acupuncture and electroacupuncture.

Part 3 contains:

Practical application (needling) with localisation of needle points and practical training

as well as patient case seminars.

Part 4 contains a written advanced group assignment, that is examined in writing and peer-review of another groups' assignment.

All in the course included parts start from a problem-oriented and collaborative view on learning where the working methods give precondition because the student takes responsibility for his learning actively. Central is to take responsibility for the learning and to search and evaluate new knowledge.

The course contains lectures, web-based lectures, seminars, workshops, clinical reasoning, peer-review, academic debate, written assingnements and practical application. In addition, self studies. The students will also write an advanced assignment.

Practical application (needling practise) takes place in pairs during the entire course why you as a participant need to feel comfortable being needled during the course. For security reasons, the compulsory sessions of acupuncture treatment has to be attended before the students are allowed to begin the practical application (needling).

Part 1. Pain physiology
Is examined in a written exam .

Part 2. Medical acupuncture; physiology and treatment
Is examined in a written digital exam from home as well as via oral and written assignements alone or in a group at seminars and workshops*

Part 3. Practical application and patient case seminars
Is examined using practical exercises and oral assignements at the seminars*.

Part 4. Written advanced assignment
Is examined through a written advanced assignment and peer-review of another essay.

* Compulsory parts in the course are seminars/workshops and practical applied parts which are marked in the timetable. Attendance at other parts of  the course are not compulsory, but are strongly recommended. Attendance during the initial mandatory sessions is required for safety reasons for continued participation in the course. Possibility to supplement certain absence from compulsory parts can be offered at assembly time. On absences more than a day, there will be an opportunity at the next course, provided that there is a decided course.
The course coordinator assesses if and, in that case, how absence can be compensated. Before the student has participated in all compulsory parts or compensated absence in accordance with the course coordinatior´s instructions, the student's results for respective part will not be registered in LADOK. Compensation for absence from compulsory parts might not be able to be implemented until the next course date.

Students who have not passed the regular examination are entitled to participate in five examinations. If the student has failed six examinations, no additional examination will be offered. Every time the student participates in the same test counts as an examination session. Submission of blank exam is counted as examination session. Examination for which the student registered but not participated in does not count as an examination.
If the student fails at a practical moment the student is entitled to one more examination session.

Language of instruction: Swedish.