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Doctor of Chiropractic Program
D’Youville is the first liberal arts college in New York State to offer a professional doctor of chiropractic degree program. Nationwide, it is the first chiropractic program that is truly integrated within a multidisciplinary health professions and liberal arts college.
The chiropractic program is designed to prepare chiropractors as primary healthcare professionals capable of responding to the changing demands of society in an ever-evolving, integrative healthcare system. The curriculum provides the chiropractic graduate with:
Substantial knowledge of the basic biological sciences;- an in-depth understanding of the distinctive principles, theories and skills of chiropractic science;
- the ability to perform and develop a neuromusculoskeletal assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation plan of care; to assess the patient’s general health status; to recognize deviations from normalcy; and to refer or co-manage the healthcare of patients requiring other types of care;
- the knowledge, skills and ability to provide restorative, preventive and wellness care;
- an understanding of the importance of evidenced-based care and the ability to apply the research process in identifying significant problems, in determining the appropriate approaches to solution, and in assessing the outcomes in terms of healthcare effectiveness and efficiency.
Reflecting the rigorous standards of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), the official accrediting agency for chiropractic programs in the United States, graduates are prepared to sit for national licensing examinations.
D’Youville’s program is open to entering freshman students, transfer students and second career students. The entering freshman student has the opportunity to complete two degrees, the Bachelor of Science in biology and the doctor of chiropractic degree, in seven years instead of the usual eight years. Transfer and second career students can complete the doctor of chiropractic degree in four years or less, depending on the amount of credits transferred into the program.
Chiropractic Program Requirements
There are two entry tracks into the chiropractic program. One is the seven-year, two-degree doctor of chiropractic program, where the first degree is a bachelor of science in biology. The other track is simply admittance directly into the professional doctor of chiropractic program after pre-entry requirements have been achieved. The pre-entry requirements include 90 semester credit hours, of which 48 semester credit hours are:
- English Language — 6 semester hours
- Psychology — 3 semester hours
- Social Sciences or Humanities — 15 semester hours
- Biological Sciences — 6 semester hours
- General or Inorganic Chemistry — 6 semester hours
- Organic Chemistry — 6 semester hours
- Physics — 6 semester hours
- Laboratory sections associated with biology, chemistry and physics courses are also required.
What is Chiropractic?
The Chiropractic profession is the second largest primary health care profession in the world and the fastest growing.
Chiropractic is a unique and very specific science. It deals with the structure of the body, primarily the spine and spinal nervous systems, and the relationship between proper alignment of those structures and related bodily functions. It is a science firmly grounded in anatomy, physiology, neurology and biomechanics. Chiropractic seeks to maximize the inherent recuperative powers of the human body and by acting to realign structural elements of the spine through the process of chiropractic adjustment, to remove blockages to proper function. The chiropractic adjustment is a safe, skillfully planned clinical intervention that is delivered more than a million times each working day in the United States alone.
Chiropractic provides a natural approach to health and health care and offers the consumer an effective, drug free, non-surgical intervention for a wide range of conditions. Chiropractic is very much in tune with the values and priorities of individuals who are seeking to take control of their own personal health and health care decisions.