Acupuncturist
Healthcare
Diagnose, treat, and prevent disorders by stimulating specific acupuncture points within the body using acupuncture needles. May also use cups, nutritional supplements, therapeutic massage, acupressure, and other alternative health therapies.
What you'd do all day
The tasks that matter most in this job, most important first.
- 1Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental, and infection control policies and procedures.
- 2Adhere to local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and statutes.
- 3Treat patients using tools, such as needles, cups, ear balls, seeds, pellets, or nutritional supplements.
- 4Identify correct anatomical and proportional point locations based on patients' anatomy and positions, contraindications, and precautions related to treatments, such as intradermal needles, moxibustion, electricity, guasha, or bleeding.
- 5Develop individual treatment plans and strategies.
- 6Insert needles to provide acupuncture treatment.
- 7Evaluate treatment outcomes and recommend new or altered treatments as necessary to further promote, restore, or maintain health.
- 8Collect medical histories and general health and lifestyle information from patients.
- 9Maintain detailed and complete records of health care plans and prognoses.
- 10Educate patients on topics, such as meditation, ergonomics, stretching, exercise, nutrition, the healing process, breathing, or relaxation techniques.
- 11Assess patients' general physical appearance to make diagnoses.
- 12Analyze physical findings and medical histories to make diagnoses according to Oriental medicine traditions.
- 13Consider Western medical procedures in health assessment, health care team communication, and care referrals.
- 14Dispense herbal formulas and inform patients of dosages and frequencies, treatment duration, possible side effects, and drug interactions.
- 15Apply heat or cold therapy to patients using materials, such as heat pads, hydrocollator packs, warm compresses, cold compresses, heat lamps, or vapor coolants.
- 16Formulate herbal preparations to treat conditions considering herbal properties, such as taste, toxicity, effects of preparation, contraindications, and incompatibilities.
- 17Treat medical conditions, using techniques such as acupressure, shiatsu, or tuina.
- 18Apply moxibustion directly or indirectly to patients using Chinese, non-scarring, stick, or pole moxa.
Also known as
What this job is called on JobStreet, LinkedIn and in job ads. Search these too.
- LAC
- Herbalist
- Chinese MD
- Acupressurist
- Acupuncturist
- Acupuncturists
- Acupuncture Doctor
- Auricular Therapist
- Acupuncture Provider
- Acupressure Therapist
How far is this from you?
Roughly how much preparation this job usually takes. In Malaysia your UPU route and the programme's syarat still decide entry, so treat this as a guide, not a gate.
1
Entry straight after SPM
2
SPM + sijil / short TVET course
3
Diploma / TVET (sijil–diploma)
4
Degree (ijazah sarjana muda)
Typical entry
Postgrad (sarjana / PhD) or professional route
Subjects that matter here
The SPM subjects worth your effort for this career, with the reason for each.
What you'd need to know
The subject areas this job leans on most, and the SPM subjects that build them.
- Customer and Personal Service89%
- Medicine and Dentistry81%
BiologyChemistry
- Psychology76%
- Biology74%
BiologyAdditional Science
- English Language73%
English
- Therapy and Counseling70%
BiologySports Science
Tools you'd use
Software and equipment that show up in this job, worth learning early.
What the work feels like
Day-to-day working conditions, so you can tell whether the job suits how you like to work.
- Face-to-face discussionsEvery day
- Contact with other peopleConstant contact
- Dealing with customers or the publicVery high
- Leading or coordinating othersA little
- Handling conflict situationsRarely
- Indoors, air-conditionedEvery day
- Outdoors, in all weatherAlmost never
- Noisy environmentAlmost never
AI and demand for this job
A few real, dated data points — not a single score. AI making some tasks faster usually means a job changes, not that it disappears.
Share of everyday tasks today's AI can already help with (2023)
This estimate is from 2023 — already out of date, since AI moves fast. Treat it as a rough, aging starting point, not the current picture.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, not Malaysian. Shown because it's the only forward-looking demand estimate we have for this job.
Pay in Malaysia
We don't have a sourced Malaysian salary range for this job yet, and we'd rather show nothing than a number we can't stand behind.
Where to check:
- JobStreet and Hiredly job ads for this title
- DOSM Salaries & Wages Survey
- SSPA scheme tables, if you're aiming for a government post
Check what you may qualify for
Enter your SPM grades and see which routes and programmes you may qualify for. An estimate to plan with, not an offer.
How to get here
Post-SPM pathways with programmes in this career's fields. Tap one to see real programmes and entry requirements.
Related careers
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About this information
This describes what the job involves. Pay, demand and entry routes differ in Malaysia, so check the Pathways and Programmes pages for local requirements.
O*NET occupation: Acupuncturists
Job responsibilities, knowledge areas and work context from O*NET 30.3, US Department of Labor, used under CC BY 4.0. onetcenter.org