Opportunities

Position: Acupuncturist

Employment Status: Self-employed associate

Time/Days: 2.5 days per week on Tuesdays, Thursday PM, Friday/Saturday

Payment: 70% of Treatment Revenue on days worked.*

Start Date: Nov 2023-Jan 2024 (flexible depending on experience)

*See current treatment pricing.

The Clinic

The clinic is based in the South Devon Tennis Centre just outside Ivybridge on the A38 with good access from the South Hams and Plymouth areas. I started the clinic recently in Nov 2022 after moving from Oxford and am looking for another acupuncturist to join the team!

Currently there is one fully equipped treatment room with plans to expand to 2 rooms + as the clinic grows. Facilities are great with disabled access, toilets and a cafe, ample parking, located within a busy tennis club.

The Role

Practitioners will start with a 1-day a week trial period.* I am looking for the practitioner to then commit to build up to 2.5 days a week minimum at the clinic with the intention of the role being long-term.

The new practitioner will be starting out treating one patient per hour but should be capable and comfortable with treating 2 patients per hour as the clinic grows and potentially expands to getting an additional treatment room. The practitioner may have the opportunity to take on more days as the clinic grows.

*For newly qualified/less experienced practitioners there will be an additional required period of shadowing/observation and potentially some additional training requirements. More experienced practitioners would also be encouraged and be welcome to do some shadowing to observe the treatment approach used in the clinic.

The Treatment Approach

I am ideally looking for a practitioner either using or keen to learn a similar treatment approach as myself. This is to help maintain a relative consistency in the type of treatments we provide for patients. My fundamental treatment approach is predominantly informed by the Applied Channel Theory approach as taught and practiced by the late Dr Wang Ju-Yi. It is hands-on, palpation-based and interactive style! The approach is also integrated and informed by conventional anatomy, physiology and rehabilitation science especially in the treatment of musculo-skeletal pain and neurological issues (for which I also use scalp acupuncture as an adjunctive treatment approach). I often use some tuina massage as an adjunctive therapy to acupuncture but not as a stand-alone treatment.

I am happy to take on a practitioner who is interested in learning this approach and undertaking a period of additional training/shadowing prior to starting the role. This could be a great opportunity for a relatively newly qualified or less experienced practitioner to undertake some further clinical training.

Practitioners experienced in a using different treatment approach will certainly still be considered and should still apply if interested. The practitioner will still have the autonomy to decide on their treatment approach for each patient.

Evidence-Informed Practice

I am a researcher as well as practitioner and am an advocate for using evidence-informed practice where possible. My treatment approach is motivated by getting clear results for patients with their health issues. I’ve been routinely collecting a lot of useful clinical and outcomes data over the years on all my patients to help ensure I am maintaining a high standard of patient outcomes and to help inform finding the most optimal treatment approaches.

This is a great opportunity for the research-motivated practitioner to join in with this initiative and utilise the same system of monitoring patient outcomes and recording clinical notes for which we have a specific software system. I am striving for the clinic to be innovative in our field and collect real data to inform best practice methods. I am also interested in potentially having specific research studies based at the clinic in the future.

Qualifications and Experience

The ideal practitioner will:

• Be qualified at degree level or equivalent.
• Either i) be an experienced practitioner with training in the Applied Channel Theory approach as described above or ii) be a newly qualified/less experienced practitioner who is interested in undertaking a period of additional training/shadowing prior to starting the role.
• Be qualified in tuina and/or other massage therapy and be a confident ‘hands-on’ practitioner.
• Be a confident, enthusiastic, empathetic and skillful therapist! Motivated to help patients and genuinely understand and explore their health issues. Prior experience in another conventional healthcare profession is also welcome.
  Have additional complementary skills/specialisms in other clinical areas such as women’s health/oncology
• Have a positive attitude to research and evidence-informed practice and have a competent knowledge of conventional anatomy, physiology and pathology as well as traditional Chinese medicine theory.
• Interested in potentially working on future research projects based at the clinic.
• Committed to undertake regular CPD training and constantly strive to develop as a practitioner.
• Technically competent with using online systems for patient record keeping, appointment bookings and payment.
• Open to having students observe their practice.
• Open to discussing cases, able to provide and have cover provided for patients where needed.
• Preferentially be a member of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC)