The best chiropractor schools make sure you get plenty of hands-on experience. Some place you in internships outside the school campus. Even better, some colleges have chiropractic clinics on their own campuses. This is ideal because the early introduction to working with patients, will help you get extra exposure to chiropractic practice and you will spend more quality learning time with your instructors. It is also incredibly rewarding to be able to get started helping patients on a personal level.
Once you have met the chiropractic school requirements at a typical educational institution, you will probably begin the program with a heavy course load in basic science courses, with lots of exposure to topics like human anatomy, biology, chemistry and physiology, both in the classroom and from studying your textbooks. However, your chiropractic career will be about more than you learn in a book or lecture. It is not enough to hear or read about helping people; getting the skills you need is facilitated by your practical experience in the clinic.
It is certainly more than a biology class lab! Time looking at cells under a microscope is a fairly interesting way to learn about the body, but compared with patient interaction, you will learn considerably more about your profession with real people. Patients need you to listen and interact with them. Under the careful guidance of your instructors, you will learn everything you need to know: an irreplaceable complement to the books and lectures you have already experienced.
The extra time with your instructors is also invaluable. You are interested in helping patients and they are interested in helping you develop that capacity. Most instructors are veterans of a lengthy and successful chiropractic career, and have had plenty of clinic time themselves. Their experience is going to help you understand the material they are teaching you better, especially with the involvement of a patient. And there is another advantage: many people feel shy to speak up in a classroom lecture or to take full advantage of office hours. While good instructors make the effort to make themselves approachable, in the clinic you will get plenty of personal attention and opportunities to ask questions.
You will also get experience taking x-rays when needed. Knowing the body, inside and out, is helpful book study, but x-ray analysis will show you the natural individual variations normal to anatomy. Chiropractor schools that include the opportunity to work in a fully functional clinic with access to this sort of technology will expose you to just how helpful they are in your later career in Chiropractic.
Put together, a clinic gives you a real taste of the work you’re going to do and gives you an extremely rewarding learning experience.
Once you have met the chiropractic school requirements at a typical educational institution, you will probably begin the program with a heavy course load in basic science courses, with lots of exposure to topics like human anatomy, biology, chemistry and physiology, both in the classroom and from studying your textbooks. However, your chiropractic career will be about more than you learn in a book or lecture. It is not enough to hear or read about helping people; getting the skills you need is facilitated by your practical experience in the clinic.
It is certainly more than a biology class lab! Time looking at cells under a microscope is a fairly interesting way to learn about the body, but compared with patient interaction, you will learn considerably more about your profession with real people. Patients need you to listen and interact with them. Under the careful guidance of your instructors, you will learn everything you need to know: an irreplaceable complement to the books and lectures you have already experienced.
The extra time with your instructors is also invaluable. You are interested in helping patients and they are interested in helping you develop that capacity. Most instructors are veterans of a lengthy and successful chiropractic career, and have had plenty of clinic time themselves. Their experience is going to help you understand the material they are teaching you better, especially with the involvement of a patient. And there is another advantage: many people feel shy to speak up in a classroom lecture or to take full advantage of office hours. While good instructors make the effort to make themselves approachable, in the clinic you will get plenty of personal attention and opportunities to ask questions.
You will also get experience taking x-rays when needed. Knowing the body, inside and out, is helpful book study, but x-ray analysis will show you the natural individual variations normal to anatomy. Chiropractor schools that include the opportunity to work in a fully functional clinic with access to this sort of technology will expose you to just how helpful they are in your later career in Chiropractic.
Put together, a clinic gives you a real taste of the work you’re going to do and gives you an extremely rewarding learning experience.
