Job Duties Custom List 29-1199.01 — Acupuncturists
- Apply heat or cold therapy to patients using materials, such as heat pads, hydrocollator packs, warm compresses, cold compresses, heat lamps, or vapor coolants.
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- Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
- Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines.
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
- Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
- Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
- Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
- Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
- Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
- Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
- Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.
- Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.
- Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required.
- Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.
- Provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives.
- Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.
- Inform patients and refer to appropriate practitioners when diagnosis reveals findings outside physical therapy.
- Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals.
- Refer clients to community resources or services.
- Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices.
- Evaluate, fit, or adjust prosthetic or orthotic devices or recommend modification to orthotist.
- Teach physical therapy students or those in other health professions.
- Conduct or support research and apply research findings to practice.
- Participate in community or community agency activities or help to formulate public policy.
- Direct group rehabilitation activities.
- Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
- Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines.
- Perform a series of manual adjustments to the spine or other articulations of the body to correct the musculoskeletal system.
- Evaluate the functioning of the neuromuscularskeletal system and the spine using systems of chiropractic diagnosis.
- Diagnose health problems by reviewing patients' health and medical histories, questioning, observing, and examining patients and interpreting x-rays.
- Obtain and record patients' medical histories.
- Maintain accurate case histories of patients.
- Advise patients about recommended courses of treatment.
- Analyze x-rays to locate the sources of patients' difficulties and to rule out fractures or diseases as sources of problems.
- Counsel patients about nutrition, exercise, sleeping habits, stress management, or other matters.
- Consult with or refer patients to appropriate health practitioners when necessary.
- Recommend and arrange for diagnostic procedures, such as blood chemistry tests, saliva tests, x-rays, or other imaging procedures.
- Suggest and apply the use of supports such as straps, tapes, bandages, or braces if necessary.
- Perform a series of manual adjustments to the spine or other articulations of the body to correct the musculoskeletal system.
- Apply heat or cold therapy to patients using materials, such as heat pads, hydrocollator packs, warm compresses, cold compresses, heat lamps, or vapor coolants.
- Develop individual treatment plans and strategies.
- Adhere to local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and statutes.
- Insert needles to provide acupuncture treatment.
- Identify 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.
- Collect medical histories and general health and lifestyle information from patients.
- Treat patients using tools, such as needles, cups, ear balls, seeds, pellets, or nutritional supplements.
- Analyze physical findings and medical histories to make diagnoses according to Oriental medicine traditions.
- Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental, and infection control policies and procedures.
- Educate patients on topics, such as meditation, ergonomics, stretching, exercise, nutrition, the healing process, breathing, or relaxation techniques.
- Dispense herbal formulas and inform patients of dosages and frequencies, treatment duration, possible side effects, and drug interactions.
- Maintain detailed and complete records of health care plans and prognoses.
- Assess patients' general physical appearance to make diagnoses.
- Formulate herbal preparations to treat conditions considering herbal properties, such as taste, toxicity, effects of preparation, contraindications, and incompatibilities.
- Consider Western medical procedures in health assessment, health care team communication, and care referrals.
- Evaluate treatment outcomes and recommend new or altered treatments as necessary to further promote, restore, or maintain health.
- Treat medical conditions, using techniques such as acupressure, shiatsu, or tuina.
- Apply moxibustion directly or indirectly to patients using Chinese, non-scarring, stick, or pole moxa.
- Apply heat or cold therapy to patients using materials, such as heat pads, hydrocollator packs, warm compresses, cold compresses, heat lamps, or vapor coolants.
- Perform mobilizations and high-velocity adjustments to joints or soft tissues, using principles of massage, stretching, or resistance.
- Document patients' histories, including identifying data, chief complaints, illnesses, previous medical or family histories, or psychosocial characteristics.
- Educate patients about health care management.
- Advise patients about therapeutic exercise and nutritional medicine regimens.
- Conduct physical examinations and physiological function tests for diagnostic purposes.
- Administer, dispense, or prescribe natural medicines, such as food or botanical extracts, herbs, dietary supplements, vitamins, nutraceuticals, and amino acids.
- Interview patients to document symptoms and health histories.
- Diagnose health conditions, based on patients' symptoms and health histories, laboratory and diagnostic radiology test results, or other physiological measurements, such as electrocardiograms and electroencephalographs.
- Administer treatments or therapies, such as homeopathy, hydrotherapy, Oriental or Ayurvedic medicine, electrotherapy, and diathermy, using physical agents including air, heat, cold, water, sound, or ultraviolet light to catalyze the body to heal itself.
- Consult with other health professionals to provide optimal patient care, referring patients to traditional health care professionals as necessary.
- Order diagnostic imaging procedures such as radiographs (x-rays), ultrasounds, mammograms, and bone densitometry tests, or refer patients to other health professionals for these procedures.
- Maintain professional development through activities such as postgraduate education, continuing education, preceptorships, and residency programs.
- Obtain medical records from previous physicians or other health care providers for the purpose of patient evaluation.
- Conduct periodic public health maintenance activities such as immunizations and screenings for diseases and disease risk factors.
- Perform venipuncture or skin pricking to collect blood samples.
- Monitor updates from public health agencies to keep abreast of health trends.
- Prescribe synthetic drugs under the supervision of medical doctors or within the allowances of regulatory bodies.
- Report patterns of patients' health conditions, such as disease status and births, to public health agencies.
- Treat minor cuts, abrasions, or contusions.
- Perform minor surgical procedures, such as removing warts, moles, or cysts, sampling tissues for skin cancer or lipomas, and applying or removing sutures.
- Perform mobilizations and high-velocity adjustments to joints or soft tissues, using principles of massage, stretching, or resistance.
- Care for athletic injuries, using physical therapy equipment, techniques, or medication.
- Conduct an initial assessment of an athlete's injury or illness to provide emergency or continued care and to determine whether they should be referred to physicians for definitive diagnosis and treatment.
- Assess and report the progress of recovering athletes to coaches or physicians.
- Evaluate athletes' readiness to play and provide participation clearances when necessary and warranted.
- Perform general administrative tasks, such as keeping records or writing reports.
- Clean and sanitize athletic training rooms.
- Instruct coaches, athletes, parents, medical personnel, or community members in the care and prevention of athletic injuries.
- Apply protective or injury preventive devices, such as tape, bandages, or braces, to body parts, such as ankles, fingers, or wrists.
- Collaborate with physicians to develop and implement comprehensive rehabilitation programs for athletic injuries.
- Plan or implement comprehensive athletic injury or illness prevention programs.
- Inspect playing fields to locate any items that could injure players.
- Advise athletes on the proper use of equipment.
- Confer with coaches to select protective equipment.
- Develop training programs or routines designed to improve athletic performance.
- Massage body parts to relieve soreness, strains, or bruises.
- Conduct research or provide instruction on subject matter related to athletic training or sports medicine.
- Recommend special diets to improve athletes' health, increase their stamina, or alter their weight.
- File athlete insurance claims and communicate with insurance providers.
- Teach sports medicine courses to athletic training students.
- Perform team support duties, such as running errands, maintaining equipment, or stocking supplies.
- Travel with athletic teams to be available at sporting events.
- Accompany injured athletes to hospitals.
- Lead stretching exercises for team members prior to games or practices.
- Care for athletic injuries, using physical therapy equipment, techniques, or medication.
- Apply compresses, ice bags, or hot water bottles.
- Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action.
- Measure and record patients' vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration.
- Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts.
- Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations.
- Supervise nurses' aides or assistants.
- Evaluate nursing intervention outcomes, conferring with other healthcare team members as necessary.
- Work as part of a healthcare team to assess patient needs, plan and modify care, and implement interventions.
- Record food and fluid intake and output.
- Assemble and use equipment, such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, or oxygen suppliers.
- Collect samples, such as blood, urine, or sputum from patients, and perform routine laboratory tests on samples.
- Prepare or examine food trays for conformance to prescribed diet.
- Help patients with bathing, dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, or standing and walking.
- Prepare patients for examinations, tests, or treatments and explain procedures.
- Provide medical treatment or personal care to patients in private home settings, such as cooking, keeping rooms orderly, seeing that patients are comfortable and in good spirits, or instructing family members in simple nursing tasks.
- Sterilize equipment and supplies, using germicides, sterilizer, or autoclave.
- Make appointments, keep records, or perform other clerical duties in doctors' offices or clinics.
- Set up equipment and prepare medical treatment rooms.
- Clean rooms and make beds.
- Inventory and requisition supplies and instruments.
- Assist in delivery, care, or feeding of infants.
- Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them.
- Wash and dress bodies of deceased persons.
- Apply compresses, ice bags, or hot water bottles.
