Choose A Career As A Chiropractor – Treat Patients With A Holistic Approach!

Want to join a profession which would enable you to bring about an improvement in the quality of life of patients by treating them with a holistic approach? The best option for you in such a case would be to find a job as a chiropractor!

The profession of chiropractors has been witnessing a notable growth in recent years. The job basically requires a person to be professionally qualified for undertaking the task of alleviating the pain being suffered by patients and to avert the recurrence of injuries. For this, a chiropractor has to manipulate the patient’s’ joints, bones and soft tissue.

If you have decided to find a job as a chiropractor, you would be delighted to know that, since the profession is growing, an increasing number of chiropractors are currently practicing in the UK. Almost all chiropractors are working as private health care providers; and can thus work at a place of their choice and have flexible working hours. However, some chiropractors are also providing services through the NHS.

Moreover, chiropractors also have the option of working as an employee at a chiropractic or health clinic. They can also, apart from running their own clinics, work in partnership with fellow chiropractors or health professionals. The working hours of a chiropractor generally reflect the needs of their clients.

No matter how the chiropractors practice their profession, there are some common conditions — mostly spine related — which chiropractors treat in their patients by using physical manipulation, rehabilitative exercises and massage. These conditions include:

• muscular aches
• arthritic pain
• stiffness in joints
• sports injuries, and
• back, neck and shoulder pain.

Since a holistic approach is taken by chiropractors for treating their patients, the key focus of a chiropractor is on understanding the underlying cause of the patient’s illness, and not merely the symptoms of the illness. The treatment which a chiropractor designs for a patient does not include the use of drugs or any surgical procedure. The main objective behind the treatment is to encourage the natural healing process of the patient’s body.

Hence, the responsibilities which you will have to undertake when you find a job as a chiropractor will largely include the following:

• Studying the detailed medical history of a patient
• Diagnosing the patient’s illness and explaining it to him/her
• Conducting patient’s physical examination to know about the range of movement
• Taking X-rays if required
• Performing medical tests of a patient
• Deciding on a treatment plan for the patient
• Treating the patient with the help of soft tissue therapies and rehabilitative exercises.

Overall, when you have decided that you want to practise as a chiropractor in the UK, you have to first register yourself with the country’s statutory body which regulates the chiropractic profession — that is, the General Chiropractic Council (GCC). The eligibility condition for registering with the GCC is that you should have successfully completed a degree recognized by the GCC, from any of these institutions — University of South Wales, Anglo-European College of Chiropractic (AECC) in Bournemouth, or McTimoney College of Chiropractic in Oxfordshire.