Requirements

• Chiropractors must be licensed, requiring 2 to 4 years of undergraduate education, completion of a 4-year chiropractic college course, and passing scores on national and State examinations. Employment is expected to increase faster than average as a result of research and changing attitudes about alternative healthcare practices.
• Job prospects should be good; establishing a new practice will be easiest in areas with a low concentration of chiropractors.
• As with other types of independent practice, earnings for chiropractors are relatively low in the beginning, but increase as the practice grows.
• Chiropractors, also known as doctors of chiropractic or chiropractic physicians, diagnose and treat patients whose health problems are associated with the body’s muscular, nervous, and skeletal systems, especially the spine. Chiropractors believe that interference with these systems impairs the body’s normal functions and lowers its resistance to disease. They also hold that spinal or vertebral dysfunction alters many important body functions by affecting the nervous system and that skeletal imbalance through joint or articular dysfunction, especially in the spine, can cause pain.
• The chiropractic approach to healthcare is holistic, stressing the patient’s overall health and wellness. It recognizes that many factors affect health, including exercise, diet, rest, environment, and heredity. Chiropractors provide natural, drugless, nonsurgical health treatments and rely on the body’s inherent recuperative abilities.They also recommend changes in lifestyle—in eating, exercise,and sleeping habits, for example—to their patients. When appropriate, chiropractors consult with andrefer patients to other health practitioners.
• Like other health practitioners, chiropractors follow a standard routine to secure the information they need for diagnosis and treatment. They take the patient’s medical history, conduct physical, neurological, and orthopedic examinations, and may order laboratory tests. X rays and other diagnostic images are important tools because of the chiropractor’s emphasis on the spine and its proper function. Chiropractors also employ a postural and spinal analysis common to chiropractic diagnosis.
• In cases in which difficulties can be traced to the involvement of musculoskeletal structures, chiropractors manually adjust the spinal column. Some chiropractors use water, light, massage, ultrasound, electric, and heat therapy.They also may apply supports such as straps, tapes, and braces. Chiropractors counsel patients about wellness concepts such as nutrition, exercise, changesin lifestyle, and stress management, but do not prescribe drugs or perform surgery.
• Some chiropractors specialize in sports injuries, neurology, orthopedics, pediatrics, nutrition, internal disorders, or diagnostic imaging.
• Many chiropractors are solo or group practitioners who also have the administrative responsibilities of running a practice. In larger offices, chiropractors delegate these tasks to office managers andchiropractic assistants. Chiropractors in private practice are responsible for developing a patient base, hiring employees, and keeping records.