Currently in Ontario, training usually begins following the successful completion of a minimum two years of full-time study at the post-secondary level. Following acceptance into a school of traditional Chinese medicine, a program of study consisting of approximately 3200 hours follows which normally requires a period of four standard full-time academic years to complete.
Within the practitioner’s diploma program, as presently offered in Ontario academies of TCM, courses in TCM theory, acupuncture, herbology, and the biological sciences, among others, are undertaken along with hundreds of hours of clinical internship.
Graduates must then successfully complete two nationally administered full-day examinations regarding TCM theory and clinical practice, as well as two provincially administered tests related to infection control and jurisprudence before licensure is granted by the professional college that governs TCM practitioners in Ontario, the CTCMPAO.
