Chiropractic Degree: Great Choice for the Surge Toward Integrative Care

UPDATED APRIL 27, 2020

If you’ve been following how much the healthcare environment is changing, you know the term integrative care. Integrative care calls for healthcare providers to collaborate on patient care by focusing on their specialty areas. Think of it as a patient-centered, bio-psychosocial approach that is proving to cut costs, reduce medical errors, and help eliminate unnecessary tests and invasive procedures. The movement is excellent news for students considering a chiropractic degree.

Doctors of Chiropractic: Essential to Integrative Care Results

With a healthcare system where costs are rising faster than annual incomes, providers realize it’s essential to keep patients out of high-cost settings and manage chronic illnesses and pain effectively. The key is getting patients to the right physician specialist as soon as possible.

For acute, subacute, and chronic back and neck pain, the record for doctors with a chiropractic degree from a chiropractic college is pretty clear. In a Consumer Reports survey, chiropractic outperformed other back pain treatments, including prescriptions, deep-tissue massage, over-the-counter medication, yoga, and Pilates.

Healthcare system administrators, says Mark Crawford in the article Why DCs Are a Perfect Fit for Integrated Care Settings, “are increasingly interested in adding D.C.s (chiropractors) to their systems.”

It’s Chiropractic Care for Neck and Back Pain

The interest in earning a chiropractic degree has never had a better outlook (less than one percent unemployment rate) or been more accepted (about 87% of healthcare plans can cover chiropractic treatments).

Chiropractic’s growing use stems from a variety of factors:

• The profession’s non-pharmaceutical, non-surgical approach to healing and pain management, which may include therapeutic exercises, nutrition, and lifestyle counseling
• Numerous evidence-based studies recommending first choosing chiropractic and other conservative care options
• Public awareness of the dangers of prescription opioid medication.

It’s estimated that 80% of the U.S. population will have a life-interrupting back or neck problems in their lifetime. In 2017, a study showed 97% of patients using chiropractors in the past year were satisfied with their care and would recommend it to family and friends: Chiropractic: A Safe and Cost Effective Approach to Care.

The Future of Integrated Care

With that type of result, no wonder it’s increasingly likely to see medical clinics having D.C.s on staff or D.C.s available for referral. Chiropractic colleges, like their medical school counterparts, have always emphasized in-depth diagnostic examinations before recommending any treatment, including their own.

Here’s what those thinking about health care professions should remember about the move to integrative care:

• The cost-reducing practices of integrative health care practices also improve patient outcomes.
• Chiropractic education lends itself to this medical movement. Nearly 25% of all D.Cs. reported they work in an integrated practice environment – up from 6% just a year earlier.
• Integrative medicine’s “patient-centered” care happens more easily through technology like Electronic Health Records (EHRs) – an important reminder to ensure your healthcare coursework covers EHR use and management.

Thinking About a Chiropractic Degree? Come to CUKC

Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) is a private, nonprofit, healthcare-focused university with a nearly 100-year history as a chiropractic college. CUKC is located in Overland Park, Kansas, a vibrant, highly rated suburb of the Kansas City metro.

In addition to the 3.3 year Doctor of Chiropractic degree, students can choose a concurrent B.S./D.C. option. This degree results in both a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology degree and the D.C. degree, which reduces time in school by as much as a year.

CUKC is the first U.S. chiropractic college to have two Force Sensing Technology Tables (FSTT) in the adjusting laboratory on campus. FSTT™ improves students’ mastery of effective adjustment techniques by displaying and recording the amount of adjusting force being applied.

There are three equal class starts per year: spring, summer, and fall. There may be a chiropractic degree in your future, so get your questions answered. Connect with an advisor today or request the free ebook, Your Complete Guide to the Chiropractic Professiontoday!