Doctoral Degree

I am already in a quandary about the recent edict that came down from the AACN stating that they were adopting the clinical doctorate as an entry to advanced practice nursing. I swallowed it am and planning on getting it since the idea of being grandfathered in makes me only slightly more nauseous than the idea of yet another several thousand dollars I will spend on superfluous higher education. And I keep telling myself that professional parity in a hospital setting is important and it will likely lead to more practice autonomy on a national level.

I have maintained for quite a while that the DAOM is even more ridiculous when you consider we have yet to adopt the same licensing standards as other allied health professions, most practitioners are in private practice so there is no employment or parity advantage, and the federal government won't grant loans for this experience of paying a lot of money to an institution so you can write papers and have supervised clinical hours outside of your own practice.  It is more important to have the master's level education in acupuncture and Oriental Medicine standardized with a single, nationally recognized designation.  I have been on about this in several previous posts, so I will leave it at that. But I would add that as of yet, there is no advantage to a DAOM other than bragging rights to call yourself a "doctor" and still have people say, "now what do all those initials after your name mean?" 

More power to the practitioners who have achieved the DAOM, it is just not for me as it stands right now. I investigated several programs for myself and saw very little difference between the offered educational experience and intense self-study along with finding a mentor in the specialty area of interest. 

But this is for news, not my own opinion.  Funny that this comes from the community acupuncture network, a practice style I have said my peace about before.

Community Acupuncture Network Votes "No" on New Doctorate Degree for Acupuncture

by Larry Gatti 
Sunday Jan 11th, 2009 8:16 AM

The board of directors for the Community Acupuncture Network (CAN) has voted unanimously to oppose a new doctorate degree for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine on the grounds that such a move would be detrimental to practitioners, patients and the profession. Due to its large membership, the vote represents a significant hurdle for professional consensus for the ACAOM to renew its review and finalization of standards for a first-professional doctorate in acupuncture and in Oriental medicine.

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