Advice to New Doctor of Chiropractic Students

Feeling burnt out? Worried about the next term? We asked some of our recent graduates to weigh in and offer some advice.

I would tell an incoming student not to stress the little details. Work on the big picture and have balance in your life. Enjoy each and every day to its fullest and try not to stress too much. – Dr. Josie Ball

Make sure to not burn out and live only to study. You will have to study a tremendous amount, but schedule time on a regular basis to stay in touch with the activities and people that give you strength and enjoyment. – Dr. Chet Collins

Chiropractic school is a good foundation, but you should continue to expand your skill set by attending seminars regularly. Don’t wait until you are a new grad struggling to make it, or you will be enticed by oversimplified and dogmatic technique systems. If you have a mentor, use him. If you don’t, find one. – Dr. Noah Edvalson

Never let up. Keep your intensity throughout the whole program. There are things that I do every day in practice that I was taught ONE time in an adjusting lab, a PT lab, or a clinic lab. If I would have missed that ONE class I wouldn’t know how to help 25 percent of the patients that I see today. There are patients who come through my door with life threatening conditions that unless I had gone to that ONE class I would have missed the boat and they wouldn’t be here today. Also, try and expose yourself to as many adjusting seminars, massage techniques, taping seminars and anything else that makes its way onto campus. You have such an opportunity to learn. Don’t sit at home just waiting to complete the program. Go take control of your education. – Dr. David Martin

The program and courses are tough and challenging but when you hear a patient tell you what a difference you have made in their life, all the pain and stress of the program is worth it. Know that you are not alone, you have a family of students in your class, in the school going through the exact same thing. And just think if everyone in the quarters ahead of you, everyone who graduated before you, if they could do it, so can you! Also, do not be closed minded to the different techniques, philosophies and ways of thinking, they are all valid in their own ways and there is something to benefit from them all. – Dr. Shanna Rai