If you are contemplating a career as a doctor of chiropractic (D.C.), there is a lot to consider. Through your research, you may have discovered what kind of prerequisites you need to start a chiropractic program, and how long it will take to earn the degree. You may have learned about what a chiropractor does and how this noble profession has been helping people live pain free lives for more than a century.
You’ve researched different institutions and learned about application procedures, graduation rates, and student to teacher ratios. While these are important factors that will get you on campus, what you want to know is what kind of opportunities are available for you off-campus. You want to know about chiropractic internships!
Now, you do need to explore the various aspects of the profession along with the academic requirements to see if chiropractic is right for you. However, internships can be an integral part of your development as a healthcare professional.
Sharpening your skills in real-world environments away from the classroom can be the key to your success, while also providing personal enrichment.
Here are four options that are available at some chiropractic schools while you are still taking chiropractic courses on your path to graduation. These opportunities can often be used to earn credit toward your chiropractic degree.
Free Health Clinics
Some chiropractic institutions have an agreement in place with local free-health clinics. An opportunity such as this is available for credit to those late in their degree curriculum. Student interns, under the guidance of licensed doctors of chiropractic, provide chiropractic care to those in need at these multi-disciplinary facilities. Many chiropractic interns find that the ability to help those with no other means to receive care is rewarding both professionally and emotionally.
Veterans Administration Medical Centers
Some chiropractic schools have educational affiliations with VA hospitals in their area to provide care for veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Many of these centers now have a Department of Physical Medicine, which is a multi-disciplinary facility that includes a chiropractic clinic. Under the supervision of a licensed doctor of chiropractic, students can provide care to our nation’s veterans.
These opportunities are available for chiropractic course credit to student interns nearing graduation from the chiropractic program. It is a way to give back to those who have given much to our nation.
Preceptorship and Extended Preceptorships
Preceptorships serve to expand and enhance the clinical portion of the educational program during the final months before graduation from the chiropractic program. They partner a student with a practicing D.C. of their choice to serve as a preceptor (teacher). The student then works with that practitioner for a predetermined time, usually 4-12 weeks, which allows them to be exposed to a variety of patient conditions and treatment plans, as well as the various elements of operating a practice.
The Extended Preceptorship offers all of the same benefits, except only for a longer-term, usually 12-15 weeks. Spending more than three months working with a doctor of chiropractic in the field is an invaluable way to gain knowledge about the profession.
Mission Trips
Some chiropractic institutions have opportunities to broaden and refine the clinical portion of their educational program in an international setting. Mission trips are a way for students to earn clinic hours while providing chiropractic care to residents of the world who are in need.
Under the supervision of a licensed D.C., chiropractic interns can offer examinations and provide care to enhance their abilities, while offering the chance for personal growth in a foreign locale. These opportunities are often reserved only for those in the last two terms of their chiropractic course of study.
There is nothing like the feeling you get when you can use all of the knowledge you’ve received in your chiropractic courses to ease the pain and suffering of another. The chiropractic internship is a real-world experience that allows you to be there, in the moment, with all of the tools you need to be successful. It sharpens your people skills, your treatment abilities, and offers experiences that are not possible in a classroom setting. It can shape the type of person that you are, and ultimately, the type of chiropractic practitioner you will become.
Chiropractic Internships at CUKC
Students in the Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree program at Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) begin their studies with traditional classroom instruction, but they soon become immersed in the hands-on portion of the curriculum.
For students who wish to broaden their practical experience beyond the on-campus student and public clinics, CUKC offers additional off-campus internship and clinical opportunities. In fact, CUKC offers each of the chiropractic internship opportunities mentioned in this article.
CUKC is a private, nonprofit, healthcare-focused university located in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of nearly 190,000 people within the Kansas City metropolitan area. The University’s College of Chiropractic has been a national leader since 1922. CUKC is also the first U.S. chiropractic college to have two Force Sensing Tables in the adjusting laboratory on campus, which is helping students to gain chiropractic adjustment skills and confidence.
Learn more about chiropractic internship opportunities at CUKC, and connect with an admissions advisor to get started on the path to your chiropractic career.
Eager to know more? Get answers to the question “why become a chiropractor” by requesting a free copy of the eBook, Your Complete Guide to the Chiropractic Profession today!
