Health care students' perceptions of chiropractic education and the profession

Objective: A pilot study administering a questionnaire to students in a Bachelor of Science Nursing program regarding their beliefs about chiropractic, the profession and the education.

Methods: Ninety-two surveys were administered and returned from students in the senior year of a BSN program at a major urban university

Results: Unique responses included: 76% agree/strongly that chiropractic is based on science; 57.7% of respondents believed chiropractic college is three years or less in length, while 33% believed it is two years or less, 84.4% of these bachelor’s degree-level nursing student respondents believed that chiropractic education is of equal or less difficulty than their professional education, 35% believed that their professional education teaches more anatomy and physiology than chiropractic colleges and only 26.3% disagreed/strongly that their professional education teaches more pathology than chiropractic programs.

Conclusion: Healthcare providers are part of a public health team and need to be aware of each other’s abilities, education, and scope of practice. This is vital so that providers can refer patients to appropriate providers, or not waste time referring to inappropriate providers. While this is a small study sample, there appears to be agreement that chiropractic care shows strength in musculoskeletal care, low back pain, and chronic headaches. There are issues raised regarding perceptions of the depth and breadth of chiropractic education that need to be further explored and potentially debunked by education and public relations on the part of the chiropractic community. The study should be repeated with different cohorts of healthcare students.