Here is a blog entry from a chiropractic student, Christina Aiello. Christina loves to mix her two passions, chiropractic and dance, which should serve her well in the future as she carves out a niche in her career. You can find more of her blog at https://www.adjustingdance.com.
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As a follow up to my NCLC blog, I had been struggling. It was difficult for me to decide what direction to take or where to start this discussion.
I knew nothing about the divide in the chiropractic profession prior to entering school. Straight versus mixer, or science versus philosophy. I only knew from my past experience, which if I had to put them into a category I would say they are more “mixers”. They just listened to me and helped me recover from my injuries and get back into dancing at my fullest potential. That is what was most important to me and that is what I want to give to my future patients.
Now this post may turn away some of my classmates, but I needed to share my voice and my opinion based off an experience from when I first entered the DC program. I started school in May 2017, almost on a whim, but a well educated whim nonetheless. As I stated before, I did not know any of this divide in chiropractic but I knew what I had experienced before and I knew who I wanted to be. My confidence entering school was brought down all to quick when the harsh reality of the divide set it.
Let’s be honest, you can easily get me to free meetings and conferences with free food, so the promise of free pizza on a Friday night for only a few hours of my time seemed like a no brainer. The meeting was put on by a practice management group (nothing against practice management groups) and it had a bunch of their top “successful docs” in their group talking about their experience. Yes, getting out of debt and making money may be successful to some people, but it was not success for me and it was very intimidating.
Success to them meant numbers.
Don’t get me wrong, being able to see as many people and help as many people as you can is a great goal. But I knew I did not want to sacrifice quality for quantity, but this event made that seem like an impossible goal. Walking out I was confused and just feeling as though I was going to fail before I even started. That my dream practice was just that, a dream. I honestly thought I might drop out of the program and go back to the orthopedic/sports medicine M.D. route I had considered doing before. I was told how many chiropractors fail and how I had a chance to fail if I did not run my practice this way. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I lost my confidence in chiropractic and myself.
I am not bashing this group, nor any practice management group, club or an group of chiropractors. What you believe and what you are passionate about should be your guiding force throughout life. I am in no position to tell anyone that their opinions are wrong or they should think the same way I do. I am just a student eager to be out in the profession and make a difference in people’s lives. I just wish I had gone into that meeting more confident in myself and my capabilities because I left scared. Scared to be successful and even scared to be a chiropractor.
Is this what we are getting chiropractic students into? Scaring them into buying into management groups? Telling them they will fail even before they graduate? Having them doubt why they chose to get into chiropractic?
So how do we move FORWARD?
I just want current and future chiropractic students to know they are not alone, and that it is perfectly ok to have your own opinions and to question others. Stay firm in your beliefs and don’t let others tell you that you will fail if you do not believe the same things that they do. Be yourself and good things will come. You will find where you belong. I rediscovered my love and passion for what I am doing at NCLC this year, and I am forever thankful for the experience.
My classmates suggested I look into the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance. A group of evidence-based doctors and students… and I am so thankful I did! The FTCA group and the FORWARD KC conference coming up in Kansas City has inspired me to write this post and speak up about how I am going to move forward, and how I can be that voice to help move my profession FORWARD.
More soon!
-Christina