Romania

Laws regarding acupuncture practice are largely unclear, occasionally contradictory and although the laws have been passed in 2007, up to the present day have no norms as to how they should be applied. They are somewhat favourable to doctors becoming practitioners. Registered acupuncture practitioners are around 150 in the whole country (total population around 20 million), but difficult to assess accurately. Also most of these officially registered practitioners don’t practice only acupuncture and have only completed a basic course in acupuncture training (less than 200h total of study with no practice attached, nor any supervision) and registered, many of which not practicing acupuncture anymore. Official numbers show doctors as being the vast majority (close to 100%), unofficially, there are a number of practitioners in the field with unclear qualifications (Chinese immigrants mostly, but also therapists from other domains who have taken some acupuncture classes) which make unofficial numbers closer to 80% doctors and the rest therapists.

Treatments are done mostly in private clinics and are funded directly by patients. There have been periods during which health insurance covered acupuncture treatments anecdotally (3€ per treatment) but fluctuated with law and regulation changes.

Full Members only

Basic training required

TCM theory: 2499 hours
Western Medicine: 667 hours
Practical training: 848 hours of which approx. 75% clinical training.

Total number of hours of study: 4014h over a minimum of 4 years
Applicants must have English speaking skills to be able to study from textbooks in English and understand spoken English.

Required continuing education
20 CEUs/year

Requirements for continuing membership
Fulfilling the criteria for continuing education