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OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess chiropractic college graduates' business experience, education, and need for further education at the time of graduation. METHODS: We conducted an anonymous survey of graduating chiropractic students in 2015 and 2016 regarding their prior business experience, business courses taken before and during chiropractic education, business abilities and needs, and practice plans. RESULTS: Eighty-one responded out of 114 surveyed (71% response rate). Less than half had taken college-level business courses or had business experience prior to entering chiropractic college. Almost 90% of respondents took 1 or more of 3 elective courses in business skills during their chiropractic education. Sixty-eight percent planned to work as an associate doctor and to be in private practice after 5 years. The respondents indicated that they were more prepared in the business abilities of ethics/risk management/jurisprudence, employee management, strategic planning, and marketing/advertising, and least prepared in business operations, accounting, and billing/reimbursement. In the areas of economics, finance, business taxes, and starting a practice, the respondents indicated a need for further education or experience. It was statistically significant (p < .001) that students who had prior business experience and/or college business education were more confident in operating a health care practice. CONCLUSION: Chiropractic business education provides students with some of the practice management skills essential for operating a health care practice. Students with prior business experience and/or education reported more confidence in their ability to run a chiropractic practice immediately after graduation.

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OBJECTIVE: The objective of this pilot study is to determine the effects of whole body vibration on head repositioning accuracy. METHODS: Twenty-one participants had a bicycle helmet with an attached laser pointer placed on their heads while standing on a vibration platform. After aligning the laser beam to their determined neutral position on wall-mounted chart paper, they were instructed to close their eyes, flex their neck maximally then return to their perceived neutral position. The point where the laser beam stopped as close to the neutral position as possible was marked on the chart and the sequence was repeated for extension, left and right rotation and left and right lateral flexion. The vibration platform was then activated and the process was repeated for the same six neck movements. RESULTS: T-tests showed significant differences (p < 0.01) for head repositioning errors between normal and vibration data for all neck movements (in mm), except flexion, with vibration trials exhibiting greater re-positioning errors. Data tabulated from the four Cartesian quadrants demonstrated a preponderance of overshoot re-positioning errors in which the laser stopped in individual Cartesian quadrants for each movement and each subject. CONCLUSIONS: Whole body vibration contributes to greater head repositioning errors in young, healthy, asymptomatic individuals. Larger scale trials should establish a normal data base for head re-positioning with vibration. Future studies might investigate the relationship between whole body vibration on neck proprioception as an indicator of therapeutic efficacy in neck disorders.

OBJECTIF: La présente étude pilote vise à examiner les effets de la vibration transmise à l'ensemble du corps sur la précision du repositionnement de la tête. MÉTHODOLOGIE: On a demandé à vingt et un participants de se tenir en station debout sur une plateforme vibrante en portant un casque de cycliste équipé d'un pointeur au laser. Après avoir aligné le faisceau laser avec leur position neutre sur un tableau à feuilles mural, on a demandé aux participants de fermer les yeux, de fléchir le cou au maximum et de revenir à la position qu'ils percevaient comme neutre. Le point auquel le faisceau laser s'est arrêté le plus près possible de la position neutre a été marquée sur le tableau; on a recommencé la séquence pour l'extension, la rotation vers la gauche et vers la droite et la flexion latérale vers la gauche et vers la droite. On a mis en service la plateforme vibrante et repris la séquence pour les six mêmes mouvements du cou. RÉSULTATS: Les tests T ont révélé d'importants écarts (p < 0,01) pour ce qui est des erreurs de repositionnement entre les données normales et les données sur la vibration pour tous les mouvements du cou (en mm), sauf la flexion, les essais avec vibration étant ceux pour lesquels les erreurs de repositionnement étaient les plus graves. Les données totalisées à partir des quatre quadrants cartésiens révélaient une prépondérance d'erreurs de repositionnement lorsque le faisceau laser s'arrêtait dans les quadrants cartésiens individuels pour chaque mouvement et chaque sujet. CONCLUSIONS: La vibration transmise à l'ensemble du corps contribue à une hausse du nombre d'erreurs de repositionnement de la tête chez des sujets jeunes, en bonne santé et asymptomatiques. On devrait faire des essais à plus grande échelle pour créer une base de données sur le repositionnement de la tête après l'exposition à des vibrations. On pourrait faire d'autres études sur le lien existant entre la vibration transmise à l'ensemble du corps et la proprioception cervicale servant d'indicateur de l'efficacité des traitements dans les troubles de la colonne cervicale.

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OBJECTIVE:: To assess students' opinions of the potential influence of taking elective courses in chiropractic techniques and their future practice preferences. METHODS:: An anonymous, voluntary survey was conducted among graduating students from a doctor of chiropractic program. The survey included questions regarding the chiropractic technique elective courses they had completed and the potential influence of these courses on their chiropractic technique choices in future practice. Surveys were pretested for face validity, and data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS:: Of the 56 surveys distributed, 46 were completed, for a response rate of 82%. More than half of the students reported having taken at least 1 elective course in diversified technique (80%), Cox technique (76%), Activator Methods (70%), or sacro-occipital technique (63%). Less than half of the respondents reported taking technique elective courses in Gonstead or Thompson techniques. More than half of the students stated they were more likely to use Activator (72%), Thompson (68%), diversified (57%), or Cox (54%) techniques in their future practice after taking an elective course in that technique. Females stated that they were more likely to use Activator Methods ( p = .006) in future practice. CONCLUSION:: Chiropractic technique elective courses in the doctor of chiropractic curriculum may influence students' choices of future practice chiropractic technique.

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OBJECTIVE: Surveys for the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners indicate that diversified chiropractic technique is the most commonly used chiropractic manipulation method. The study objective was to investigate the influences of our diversified core technique curriculum, a technique survey course, and extracurricular technique activities on students' future practice technique preferences. METHODS: We conducted an anonymous, voluntary survey of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year chiropractic students at our institution. Surveys were pretested for face validity, and data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: We had 164 students (78% response rate) participate in the survey. Diversified was the most preferred technique for future practice by students, and more than half who completed the chiropractic technique survey course reported changing their future practice technique choice as a result. The students surveyed agreed that the chiropractic technique curriculum and their experiences with chiropractic practitioners were the two greatest bases for their current practice technique preference, and that their participation in extracurricular technique clubs and seminars was less influential. CONCLUSIONS: Students appear to have the same practice technique preferences as practicing chiropractors. The chiropractic technique curriculum and the students' experience with chiropractic practitioners seem to have the greatest influence on their choice of chiropractic technique for future practice. Extracurricular activities, including technique clubs and seminars, although well attended, showed a lesser influence on students' practice technique preferences.

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Objective : The main objective of this study was to determine characteristics of injuries experienced by students while learning chiropractic procedures in the classroom. Methods : Injury was defined as any physical adverse effect such as pain, stiffness, headache, and muscle spasm. Survey questions included age, sex, role, anatomical areas of injury, adjustive technique utilized, types of injury, treatment (if any), and recovery time. The survey was administered among the students in the 5th, 6th, and 8th trimesters of our doctor of chiropractic program. Only students who had completed one or more chiropractic procedures courses at the institution were asked to participate in the study. Results : Female recipients had a higher prevalence of adverse effects as the recipient of the adjustment than did male recipients. The most common site for injury overall was the lower back. The relationship between recipient role and sacroiliac joint injury and the relationship between adjustor role and wrist/hand injury were statistically significant. Students were more likely to be injured in the beginning of their technique education. Conclusion : This study suggests that students in technique courses learning adjustive procedures experience minor adverse physical effects related to the physical skills being learned. Strategies for prevention need to be considered.

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Subluxation syndrome is a legitimate, potentially testable, theoretical construct for which there is little experimental evidence. Acceptable as hypothesis, the widespread assertion of the clinical meaningfulness of this notion brings ridicule from the scientific and health care communities and confusion within the chiropractic profession. We believe that an evidence-orientation among chiropractors requires that we distinguish between subluxation dogma vs. subluxation as the potential focus of clinical research. We lament efforts to generate unity within the profession through consensus statements concerning subluxation dogma, and believe that cultural authority will continue to elude us so long as we assert dogma as though it were validated clinical theory.