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General Description

This is an ideal career for a logical and analytical thinker. Chiropractors diagnose and care for patients whose health problems are associated with the muscular, nervous, and skeletal systems, especially the spine. You focus on a holistic view, stressing the patient’s overall health and wellness and provide natural, drug free, nonsurgical healthcare and rely on the body’s inherent recuperative abilities.

You recommend changes in lifestyle, in eating, exercise, and sleeping habits to patients. Your philosophy is that interference with the nervous, muscular and skeletal systems impairs the body’s normal functions and lowers its resistance to disease as well as causing spinal dysfunction which can alter the nervous system to cause pain, among other issues.

What you do every day 

As a chiropractor you give posture advice and perform adjustments to various parts of the body to ease pain and symptoms and restore function.You follow a standard routine with patients to secure the information you need for diagnosis and care. You take the patient’s medical history, conduct physical, neurological, and orthopaedic 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.

Specific, skilful adjustments are performed as indicated by your examinations, on the spine, pelvis and extremities using your hands as well as specific mechanical devices such as an “Activator”. You refer to other health practitioners when necessary. You do not prescribe drugs or perform surgery.

If you are a solo practitioner you also have the administrative responsibilities of running a practice and the freedom of running your own business. In larger offices you can delegate these tasks to office managers and chiropractic assistants. In private practice you are also responsible for developing a patient base, hiring employees and keeping records.

Personality that best fits this career

You need to really enjoy health sciences. You need keen observation skills to detect physical abnormalities and it takes considerable manual dexterity and skill, but not unusual strength or endurance, to perform adjustments. You should be able to work independently and handle responsibility. Empathy and enjoyment of people, understanding and the desire to help others are good qualities for dealing effectively with patients. You are the person who has the analytical and logical mindset.

Best thing about this career

You are offering an alternative to western medicine – no pills, no surgery, nothing invasive. You are generally concerned about the wellness of your patient. It’s also a flexible career and relatively easy to establish your own private practice when compared to most health professionals.

Worst thing about this career

After you have succeeded in graduating from a tough 5 year university program you may encounter misconceptions that all you do is care for ‘bad backs’ and this may be the thing that irritates you most. You may also encounter a lack of acceptance from some other health care professions.