When you’re compelled to find a career that helps people improve their lives, you’re probably looking at healthcare professions. You have many pathways to get there, and one is to become a doctor of chiropractic (D.C.)
Ask anyone who works directly with patients, and their #1 reason for doing so is they enjoy helping people achieve their best possible health. Becoming a Doctor of Chiropractic is incredibly satisfying because of its proven non-pharmaceutical, whole-person approach to health and wellness.
Doctors of chiropractic focus on the diagnosis, care, and prevention of functional disorders of the spine and other parts of the musculoskeletal system. Chiropractic care restores joint function and movement, and optimizes health through good nutrition, constructive exercise, improved posture, and proper spinal and extremity joint biomechanics.
Following a comprehensive physical assessment, chiropractic care might include
The benefits of chiropractic care have been recognized in medical journals, including Spine, Medical Care, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The guidelines published in these journals call for a non-pharmaceutical approach as a first choice for spine pain management of musculoskeletal origin, and this includes spinal manipulation, the mainstay of chiropractic care.
The 2022 report, Chiropractic: A Safe and Cost-Effective Approach to Health,
noted that decades of research had documented the value and savings that result from chiropractic care. The report states, “the profession is well positioned as a healthcare authority for safe and conservative, first-contact, primary spine care for structural health and well-being.”
That’s welcome news for those who want to become a chiropractor.
The chiropractic degree program encompasses at least 4,200 hours of class time over 3.5 years. These courses include anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnosis, radiology, pediatrics, geriatrics, and instruction in chiropractic manual adjusting technique, patient management, and direct patient care, and supervised internship experiences in clinic settings.
In a typical College of Chiropractic, students earn their Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree in less than four years through a comprehensive and rigorous full-year curriculum. As students progress through school, they must pass a four-part set of exams conducted by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE).
There has never been a better time to become a chiropractor. Here are four reasons why:
Doctors of Chiropractic are licensed to practice in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The chiropractic profession is the third-largest physician-level independent health profession in the Western world.
While most chiropractors choose to offer care to patients of all ages in a family practice setting, there are specialty areas as part of chiropractic practice, including:
According to Salary.com, the median annual compensation for chiropractors with established practices in the Midwest ranges between $111,000 to $215,000, including bonuses, profit-sharing, or both. Chiropractors usually work a 40-hour work week and report high levels of job satisfaction.
When you become a chiropractor, you are just as likely to have a rewarding career in a small town or rural community as in a big city. Back and neck pain, and headache and other musculoskeletal ailments, are today as commonplace in corporate office settings and small family businesses as in factories and labor-intensive industries. (Read about Drs. Haase and Clausen, who practice in Elkhorn, Neb.)
A recent U.S. News & World Report jobs survey showed chiropractors ranking 19th in the Best Health Care Jobs category.
Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) is a nonprofit, private, chiropractic and health sciences university in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of 190,000 within the Kansas City metro area.
Our chiropractic history started in 1922. Today, more than 11,000 alumni have earned their Doctor of Chiropractic degrees from our College of Chiropractic.
Points of distinction of our D.C. program:
To learn more about the Doctor of Chiropractic program at CUKC, request information today and receive our free eBook: Your Complete Guide to the Chiropractic Profession.
