Incorporating policy into public health practice

The Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) has established a standard for wellness (effective February, 2007) competency. Each CCE standard incorporates three competency components, attitude, knowledge and skill. Prior to the establishment of the CCE wellness standard several of the knowledge components were integrated into a new teaching approach in public health adopted by one chiropractic college in the summer 2005 trimester. Public health is taught during the fourth trimester, this study group is currently in the eighth trimester and involved in patient care. To assess if knowledge gained in the classroom is applied to clinical practice a survey was conducted of current ninth trimester students to determine the extent to which they have incorporated Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) Leading Health Indicators (LHI) in their communication with patients. Results of this survey will be used as baseline data and are not indicative of previous educational attempts. The same survey will be distributed to each class at the end of their ninth trimester during 2007. The outcome of these surveys will be reported. While the college is working diligently through a wellness committee to establish guidelines in the clinic for providing patient counseling for health promotion, these guidelines will not be in place during the spring 2007 trimester. The spring 2007 survey results would be an indication of any change in student efforts to incorporate HP2010 LHI objectives in patient care as a result of education.