If you feel compelled to find the right fit in a caring profession, you’ll need to find that perfect combination of personal fit and career possibilities. Yes, the road to fulfilling your desire to make a difference in the world of healthcare has many options. For many like you, choosing to attend chiropractic school became that magic moment when their life’s direction became perfectly clear.
Doctors of chiropractic are health care professionals for the diagnosis, care, and prevention of functional disorders of the spine and other parts of the musculoskeletal system. The focus of chiropractic practice is on maintaining proper spinal function and its relationship to good health.
The chiropractic perspective views health as an expression of biological, psychological, and social factors. The profession’s principles value the body’s intrinsic biologic ability or innate tendency to self-regulate and restore and maintain health through compensating homeostatic mechanisms, reparative processes, and adaptive responses to environmental challenges.
The spinal column protects the spinal cord, an extension of the brain. Nerves from the spinal cord exit the spinal column and branch out in a web-like fashion. Their job is to transmit information back and forth between the central nervous system and the rest of the body.
Because there is a close relationship between the spine and the nervous system, abnormal or dysfunctional spinal movement may adversely affect affect neural communication between the brain and the body.
As doctors of chiropractic learn in chiropractic school, such conditions can result in disturbed spinal biomechanics, resulting in reduced optimal joint performance, accelerating degeneration, and increasing the risk of injury, pain, or other symptoms.
Chiropractic is an inherently conservative approach to healthcare. The chiropractic perspective represents a holistic biopsychosocial philosophy of health. As many people know, one aspect of chiropractic care is through a skilled manual procedure termed spinal adjustment or manipulation.
What’s less well known is that doctors of chiropractic believe in optimizing health in many other ways.
Patient care is individualized and may include information and techniques for
You can expect a doctor of chiropractic school (generally referred to as a chiropractic college) curriculum to include a minimum of 4,200 clock hours and require competency in the various categories and courses.
Major areas of chiropractic education include:
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 curriculum. As students progress through school, they must pass a four-part set of exams conducted by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE).
How well a university’s students do on these exams is one indication of educational quality. So, after searching for a chiropractic college that meets your expectations, check the school’s website for its graduates’ pass rate for all parts of the NBCE exam within six months of graduation.
Publishing statistics for the Policy 56 Student Performance Disclosure, Thresholds, and Outcomes is a requirement for accreditation by the Council of Chiropractic Education.
Whether or not specialized training follows chiropractic education, chiropractic leads to an in-demand, satisfying career as a healthcare practitioner. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for doctors of chiropractic is for 10% growth from 2021 through 2031.
There has never been a better time to become a chiropractor. Here are four reasons why:
Most chiropractic services are community-based in private offices, providing spine and extremity joint care to a broad spectrum of patients as part of a general chiropractic practice. However, many complete specialized training, bringing chiropractic care to a select patient group or type of patient.
Check out some of the more common chiropractic specialties available:
Sports Chiropractic
Sports chiropractic can focus on a wide range of sports teams, from amateur to professional. (See this profile of Dr. Patrick Hammond.)
Pediatric Chiropractic
The benefits of chiropractic care for children extend to the treatment of many specific conditions, including:
Chiropractic Radiologist
A Doctor of Chiropractic might decide to complete a chiropractic radiology residency that can lead to diplomate status with the American Chiropractic Board of Radiology (DACBR) and membership into the American Chiropractic College of Radiology.
Chiropractic radiologists often serve as consultants to chiropractic practitioners to review patient diagnostic radiographs and assist with evaluating complex cases.
Animal Chiropractic
Chiropractic care for animals may benefit many musculoskeletal conditions, including older animals or those suffering from chronic pain common to a particular breed. (Read about Dr. Emily McLeod’s practice here.)
An animal chiropractor develops the treatment plan in coordination with the owners, riders, trainers, or veterinarians who know animals’ tendencies and may assist in identifying symptoms that indicate more serious problems.
Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) is a nonprofit, private, chiropractic and health sciences university in Overland Park, Kansas, a Kansas City metro suburb. Our mission is to educate and develop leaders in health promotion and embracing behaviors to help people control and improve their health.
Our history in chiropractic education began in 1922. Today, CUKC is the only chiropractic university still guided by a member of the founding family. More than 11,500 chiropractors in the U.S. have a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from the CUKC College of Chiropractic.
Features of CUKC you should know:
Find out more when you request CUKC information, and get this free eBook: Your Complete Guide to the Chiropractic Profession.
