How to Become a Licensed Chiropractor

In this health video you will learn how to become a licensed chiropractor.

Raena Morgan: Hello, I'm talking with Dr. JaDean Anderson. Chiropractic requires a lot of education, doesn't it? Dr. JaDean Anderson: Yes. Raena Morgan: Could you talk a little bit about that? Dr. Jadean Anderson: Yes, it very much so depends on the state that you're going to practice in. Certain states require that you have a four year under-grad degree, along with your chiropractic degree as well. Other states don't require the four year degree with the chiropractic degree. So, if you go to a state that requires it and you have the four years of under-grad and the chiropractic school is a year around school where on a trimester schedule, as opposed to semester schedule. So, you have three semesters a year and you take ten of those semesters. So it comes out to be three and a third years of school within that, you're taking anywhere between 30 to 36 credits a semester, as opposed to an under-grad school, you're taking usually between 12 and like 18 credits a semester. Raena Morgan: That's intense. Dr. Jadean Anderson: So they're almost condensing about 5 years of school into three and a third years. Raena Morgan: You talk about taking so many classes. What do those classes focus on? Dr. Jadean Anderson: Usually the first year of chiropractic school consists of basically getting oriented to the body, a lot of anatomy classes and physiology classes. It's just a lot of hard core science classes and then after that, you go into a transition into more diagnosis for knowing if a patient presents with this, what is their possible problems along with technique classes that last about year and a half of school is diagnosis and technique; knowing how to adjust patients in certain areas and throughout that whole timeframe, we have a lot of radiology classes as well because we're trained to be able to take x-rays and read x-rays as well. Raena Morgan: Do you pick a specialty when you're in chiropractic school or does it depend on the school and what technique they're presenting? Dr. Jadean Anderson: It's a little bit a both. The schools depending on what school you go to, is going to have a core curriculum of technique courses that they offer to students. And then, above and beyond that, you can pick a specialty or pick a technique that interests you the most and make that a more or a larger part of what your education is going to be. So, the school is going to somewhat steer you a little bit and then you can pick a specialty be it pediatrics or certain technique that you'd like to learn more about. Raena Morgan: What drew you to chiropractic? Dr. Jadean Anderson: What drew me to chiropractic was a personal experience and knowing several chiropractors. My personal experience was, I was in high school, I was falling asleep all the time in class, really lethargic it wouldn't matter if I had six hours of sleep, nine hours of sleep I'd find myself falling asleep in class, I couldn't pay attention, my grades were suffering from it. And I decided to try chiropractic because my older brother told me go get checked. After about two or three adjustments, I basically got my energy back. I was able to sleep for seven hours, go to class, stay awake and my grades recovered. And I thought that that was, you know Raena Morgan: A miracle? Dr. Jadean Anderson: A miracle because I was miserable. It didn't matter, you know, how much sleep I got I just was tired all the time. Raena Morgan: So, three adjustments? Dr. Jadean Anderson: Yep and my energy came back. I basically got my life back. I was just a normal kid again, as opposed to being tired all the time and wanting to sleep all the time. Raena Morgan: And you are as good as new and you decided that you would go into chiropractic to help other people. Dr. Jadean Anderson: Right. Raena Morgan: Well, that was very good of you. Thank you, Dr. Anderson.