What to Expect in your First Year at ICOM
Part 3 – Research
Joining our friendly Acupuncture college is an exciting time. In your first year you’ll be bonding with your cohort, many of whom will likely become lifelong friends. You’ll also get to know your teachers and the staff at the college. The college is a warm and supportive place, and you’ll soon feel like part of a big family of like minded people. If you’re new to East Grinstead, you might also be familiarising yourself with the local area. At ICOM it’s a tradition for the first year students to arrange the annual Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations for fellow students, staff and families. This is always a hugely fun celebration.
In terms of the study, if you’re full time you’ll be learning about Chinese Medicine, Anatomy and Physiology, Acupuncture Point Location. You’ll also be beginning the Research and Personal & Professional Development modules. If you’re studying part time you’ll be taking fewer modules in your first year.
In this series of posts, we’ll focus on a particular module of our Acupuncture Licentiate course to give you an insight of what you’ll learn in your first year. Part 3 is all about the Research module.
The Research module is designed to help and support you as you begin your academic studies and in your future professional practice. You’ll experience a variety of learning systems including face-to-face sessions with on-line activities and self-study. The module will introduce you to practical transferable skills, including IT and academic writing skills. You’ll use these across the curriculum in managing your studies.
In this module you will begin to develop your own learning, self-analysis and reflective practice. As a healthcare professional, the acupuncturist is on a journey of lifelong learning, continually thinking about self-development and ways to improve one’s own practice. This reflective learning ethos is very much part of this course. If not already familiar with it, you’ll be introduced to the vocabulary and critical thinking of academia. As you work through the set activities you will receive plenty of guidance and support from your tutor.
Module themes
The main themes of the module are gaining information gathering, presentation and communication skills, as well as analytical and time management skills.
The module is structured to allow you to attend lectures, work within smaller learning groups as well as allowing you time for self-study.
You’ll access online materials for self-assessment and discussion within teaching sessions and there will be collaborative work within small groups. Then you’ll start gathering information and using it appropriately. These are all essential skills for producing good academic work.
Sessions will be delivered via both live sessions and pre-recorded podcasts. When applicable, we’ll give you the podcasts a week or more before the scheduled live session in which that specific topic will be discussed. There will be a series of quiz style tasks to check your understanding.
The online sessions with your class are designed to give you the opportunity to ask questions and consolidate material presented in the podcasts. And, as this course has a theoretical component, this mode of delivery will allow you more time to study and digest the material. The great thing about the podcasts is you can watch them as many times as you like. Then if you need to, you can go back to them to clarify certain points. Students say this works really well for them.
The research module is designed to provide you with the essential theoretical and philosophical foundations you’ll need to develop an informed clinical practice.
The aims of the Research module
The Research module aims to encourage an ethos of lifelong, self-directed, learning and time management. The academic skills you’ll gain you can apply to continued professional development within the practice of acupuncture. You will be able to locate sources of evidence and research and to discern reliability, validity, and applicability within your own clinical practice.
On completion of the Research module you will be able to search systematically for information. The differences between good and poor-quality information and sources will be clear to you. You will also be able to engage in discussion on issues related to evidence-based acupuncture. The objective report you produce at the end will use the Harvard referencing system which will support your own statements and reasoning.
Want to know more?
Want to find out more? Come along to our next Open Day and you’ll learn all about our prestigious Acupuncture training and chat to staff and students.
You can visit our Course Overview page to see which modules you’ll take during which year of our Licentiate programme. If you opt for part time study, you can see how the modules are taken year by year.
Our Aims for you at ICOM
At ICOM our aim is to inspire lifelong learners. We strive to:
- provide you with the space and support to become the best practitioners you can possibly be.
- cultivate in all our students integrity, humility and dedication.
- keep our class sizes small to ensure that we can support your individual needs.
- provide you with a thorough and rewarding training in the theory, diagnosis and practice of traditional Chinese acupuncture to develop you as a caring, perceptive and effective acupuncture practitioner.
- give you the the necessary skills to practise acupuncture safely and competently upon graduation. This includes skills in patient assessment and diagnosis, as well as accurate and informed use of acupuncture techniques, moxa and cupping.
- make sure you have a sound understanding of Western anatomy, physiology and differential diagnosis/pathology.
- help you to become a reflective practitioner, able to identify personal and professional goals for continuing professional development and lifelong learning.
- give you a keen awareness of ‘red flag’ symptoms and limits to your competence.
- prepare you to join the wider profession, which includes membership of the British Acupuncture Council along with practice development and management.