Here is how clinic selection works at NYCC...

[A quick tangent though:  if you are early in the DC program at your chiropractic college or perhaps you are just a prospective applicant...perhaps you're wondering: Why should I care about clinic already?  Well...you should.  Your clinical internship experience will be a huge part of what shapes your chiropractic college education.  You will be forced to apply your manual, communication, critical thinking and clinical skills in what is usually a year's duration...and a whirlwind of a year too.  If researching chiro schools, or even evaluating your own, think about

-  how the clinic selection process works

-  the quality of clinicians available to mentor you...what do they specialize in? 

-  how much you will get challenged and be forced to grow?

- where are the clinical opportunities?  special populations? 

- patient flow...is it steady/consistent/sufficient?

These are typically things that applicants/early level students do not think about...and the information is not always easily available.  Ask the right people and ask the right questions! Definitely worth it!  Anyways...]

Clinic selection at NYCC works like this:

- Application which factors in your

-  GPA

-  geographic location (home and current), and

-  special unique conditions (ie. if you have a spouse or own a home somewhere). 

(Compare this to some other chiropractic colleges, which distribute student-interns based on a lottery/draft system)

Find out what clinical opportunities are available to you.  NYCC is unique in that despite whatever clinic location you end up at (Depew, Seneca Falls or Levittown), each offers a set of rotation sites where you treat off site.  This includes treating a sites that may include university-college aged athletes, geratric population, long term care centers or even hospitals.  Not all chiropractic colleges offer this uniqut opportunity but no matter where you are, seek every available opportunity to treat patients and learn as much as you can!

Many have been asking me in the past week or so how clinical internship works at chiropractic college, in particular at NYCC.  I"ll start from the basics, in case you are new to learning about chiro schools...

All chiropractic college programs require their students to attain certain clinical requirements working with patients, under the supervision of a licensed DC-clinician.  This is much like the requirement of all other health professions (ie. physiotherapy students and "placement terms", medicine students and "clerkship" or "residency").  Same concept.

At NYCC, clinical phase begins in 7th trimester, lasting til 10th (final) semester.  Essentially, more or less than 40% of your NYCC education is spent with clinical experience.  This proportion can vary depending on which chiropractic college you attend.

Initially, the first four months of NYCC clinical phase is spent at 7th trimester on campus, treating predominantly in-patients.  Treating hours are limited in 7th trimester, but student interns can accrue to as many as 6 regular weekly patients.

Student interns will have to perform and be evaluated on certain clinical procedures on their patients.  These evaluations are done by supervising clinicans, who serve in a mentorship capacity.  These procedures include health history taking, physical examination procedures, special imaging (ie. x-ray), diagnosis and treatment management/application. 

Paper work and managing patient files becomes a life style.  Handwriting and spelling/grammar scrutiny rises to an all-time high.

Then, it gets even more interesting, as outpatient arrives...more to come tomorrow...stay tuned!  The journey continues...

It's a trimester break right now for NYCC students, but really it's not much of a break at all for many.

NBCE (www.nbce.org) exams for US licensing take place on Sept 11-13/09 weekend, while CCEB exams for Canadian licensing take place on the Sept 26/09 weekend.

If you were anything like me and my roomates last year, if one wasn't enough, you ended up writing both US and Canadians.  Fun.

But in all honesty, after getting many questions about board exams (how do I prepare?  what is it like?  how long does it take to prep?)...it all really feels like your first big sports competition, or first date or first job.  You are somewhat nervous perhaps (some hide it better than others), because you do not know what to expect.  After the first time though, it just gets easier because the mental uncertainty fades over time.

So being like any other challenge, do the things that you know will help you be successful.  Start prepping early if you like to use a lot of time (or if you are not as good as recalling random information from class like some of your peers).  Make sure you cover all testable subjects and try to find practice questions/exercises.  Like prepping for the MCAT, practice questions/exercises help get you ready for game-day type scenarios.

Canadians part A:  CCEB loves to ask microbiology and pathology!  Neurological disorders too.

Americans Part I:  Get lots of sleep the week of the test...with examination taking up two days, make sure you try to bulid up your rest in advance.  Lots of questions on each section, but usually quite fair.  Know your biochemistry enzymes!

If there is any way that Adam Blair is going to wear a white coat, it is going to be in vintage Adam Blair style.

I have no idea where July (and now soon to be August), went....

One Active Release Technique seminar 

+

one NYCC 90th Homecoming (more on this later! what a great time) 

+

one weekend of course work in the MSc. Applied Nutrition

= 3 out of 31 days off in July for this guy....

Add in two weeks of final exams  and a move to Depew/Lancaster, NY (clinic...yes!  Goodbye SF, NY!)...

and...sigh...  so here we are. 

Anyways, get ready to get blogerific.  We have got many things to discuss, and from my experience, sometimes writing about things in retrospect can provide a clearer perspective. 

A few quite notes:

- Incoming first trimester students...have any questions?  Please email me (ryan.macdc@gmail.com) if you like.  I can post the answers up here to share with your classmates if your queries are PG-friendly too. 

- Active Release Technique...getting lots of questions about this, so I'll blog about this as well.

- Good luck studying for everyone getting ready for NBCE/CCEB licensing exams!  You'll do great.  Just know your stuff.  Simple as that.

- Some of you have asked me how to write in to comment.  For now, email me at ryan.macdc@gmail.com     I am hoping to set up some sort of comment box function soon.

- More to catch up on soon.  Go catch some summer outside!

(Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.  Hanging out on the sand dunes with my buddies: a naturopath, a physiotherapist and Mr. Sun of course)

My apologies for lack of blog postings recently...  I have been on the road for 4 weekends straight!  It's been exhausting but fun.  There are multiple chiropractic-related stories from that to come.  Here's one from two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, I was back in Ontario attending a wedding.  My friends were getting married (congrats Jenn and Chester!), and I had attended undergrad at McMaster Kinesiology with the bride to be.  Naturally, many of our undegraduate friends from Kinesiology were in attendance.  Many of which, I had not seen in some time.  Some were now physiotherapists (PTs), registered massage therapists (RMTs, the equivalent to LMTs in the US) and a physiatrist resident amongst others. 

At the cocktail reception, I was approached by one of my old university friends who was now a massage therapist in London, Ontario.  He told me he was working with a chiropractor in the past year.  However, the patient/clients he shared with this chiropractor were somewhat confused and frusturated by chiropractic.  Apparently this chiropractor had supposedly been telling all his patients that all their health issues must have stemmed from a subluxation of the upper cervical spine (neck).  According to this particular DC, treatment and spinal manipulative therapy should be focused on this area.  This confused many of his patients as to why he was so certain of this, and this continual confusion progressed to some frustration.  My massage therapist friend informed me that those patients were reporting not any real improved benefit from visiting the chiropractor and all his treaments on all his patients were nearly identical.  Treatment began to feel like almost like routine chore.

I can't tell you how often I get this kind of story.  My massage therapist friend has therein brought foward the seemingly never dying question: How do I pick a good chiropractor?  Why are some chiropractors different?  (This is not be the first, and will not likely be the last, time I encounter this dilemna...as physiotherapists and naturopaths have all asked me this before on multiple occasions...)

The answer is...complex.  There are many different types of chiropractors out there and the majority of the public is unaware of this.  Even other health care-related fields are unaware of this (exhibit A, read above story!).  The diversity of chiropractic allows for some chiropractors to be perhaps favour treatment of patients in a highly predicatble and repetitive pattern.  On the other hand, there are other chiropractors who venture to stay focused on patient specific conditions and pain alleviation. With this "diversity", a chiropractic patient could potentially find a chiropractor whom really matches their needs and can maximize therapeutic benefits.  As a chiropractic student myself, this diversity allows me to dive into an area of chiropractic I feel most passionate about.  However, in reality, this has led to confusion amongst patients and health practitioners.   Some authors in the field have postulated that this is likely what is holding back the growth of chiropractic in past decades.

No matter what form(s) of chiropractic you like/dislike (I can offer you my opinion but can never tell you what to think), you need to find the right one for you.  As a patient, involved in whatever form of health care, you have the right to refuse care or seek other consultation if you feel it is in your best interests.  I explained to my massage therapist friend that if the chiropractor is not producing desired clinical results, to perhaps begin consider finding someone who can.  Although it is possible that the first chiropractor may be correct (ie. all his patients can benefit upper cervical treatment), that does not mean all patients may require it for him/herself.  A good chiropractor should be like any other health practitioner, considerate of their patient's needs and clinical competent to perform the best necessary treatment.  No matter what treatment technique they utilize.  I cannot speak as to what this particular chiropractor was trying to do, but I do know that there are other choices available.

Congrats to the beautiful couple.  It's summer, happy wedding season!

Thanks to everyone who attended NYCC Open House on Saturday...it was a great time.  At least the rain held off til towards the end.

A lot of prospective students (and their parents) fielded some great questions about NYCC, chiropractic education and chiropractic profession. 

The best message I can universally send is this:  do your research.  Find out everything you possibly can about NYCC (or any other institution) before making up your mind.  The best decision is an informed decision.  Trust me, this is a huge investment in time, energy (and money)...so take your time to consider all the right questions to ask.  Sometimes, some students including myself have had to learn this the hard way.  For example, you should ask about elements later on in the program.  Are elective courses available?  How does course selection work?  What technique systems are taught?  How is grading done?  How are exams formatted?  How does clinic selection work?  Do students struggle to find patients?  How do board licensing exams work and are students successful (Canada, US, beyond?) ?

In retrospect, I would have asked far more questions before I started chiropractic college.  My selection, as yours, should be based on both objective and subjective elements, not only the latter.  Do not simply trust your graduate education to what other people say, seek the truth yourself.  If you do so, you will be best positioned to enjoy the program that best suits you and your goals.

Remember, you want to ask questions about not only how to enter a chiropractic program...but also how to surivive (and thrive) to emerge at the end successfully.  Keep the big picture in mind! 

Do your research.

Sorry I have been MIA this week, it's been busy as we've had our 7th Trimester EBCCM midterm exam.  EBCCM is Evidence Based Clinical Case Management.  It is a great class so far, as it is all patient-case focused...reminds me a lot of Canadian Chiropractic board exams!  Fun.

Now on to something really fun. 

This weekend iNew York Chiropractic College is hosting its Spring 2009 Open House.  It is a really a great chance for prospective student to meet admissions staff, ask questions, learn more about chiropractic and the NYCC program.  There are activities set up including campus tours and interactive demonstrations sessions with chiropractic technique lab, anatomy lab and so on.

For more information go to:  http://www.nycc.edu/news/newsitem.asp?id=126

This is really a great opportunity to check out the school in detail.  Not many chiropractic colleges do this, including the chiro college I attended previously...so really take advantage of this if you can.

- R

ps.  check out my classmate Nick Andolina and myself on the speaker panel at Open House!  See you there.  We won't be hard to miss, we are both relatively good looking.  Free autographs and photographic opportunities upon inquiry.

- Just kidding about the autographs and photos

- No but seriously, if you ask, we'd be happy to.  Okay, good talk!

Figure 1. Nick Andolina, circa 1995.

Hello everyone...

Welcome to Ryan's NYCC Blog!

Firstly, a big thanks to Steve Budgar, Mike Lynch, Jarred Riggall and the rest of the office staff for making this possible. Also, a big shout out to everyone who gave their thoughts on a name for the blog.

I'm excited to get this off the ground.  To my, and my office's, knowledge...we have never encountered a chiropractic student online blog before. 

What are you going to see on this?  Well...anything and everything really. 

I get tons of questions about chiropractic, relationships with other health professionals, nutrition, research, active recovery care and rehabilitation to name a few.  Not to mention, plenty of questions about chiropractic college here at NYCC. But these are just starting points...no one has really done this kind of chiro-student-blog thing before.

Think of this blog like Barney Stinson's (How I Met Your Mother)...there are no rules.

More to come soon...

- Ryan Shum

ps. Hi Mom and Dad. Hi Adrienne.