Here's one I'll bet you don't hear every day

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 11, 2009

Welcome

Trauma Columnist · May 11, 2009

Hi and welcome! I think your DC education will only help you. As you get further into the NP education, have you reconciled yourself to the fact that you will be giving medications and your treatment of pts might not be as holistic as a DC?

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 11, 2009

Moved to the NP forum

chirodoc · May 11, 2009

Hi and welcome! I think your DC education will only help you. As you get further into the NP education, have you reconciled yourself to the fact that you will be giving medications and your treatment of pts might not be as holistic as a DC?

Well, considering that I'm what most hardcore chiros would call a "medipractor", I don't think I would have a problem with meds. A medipractor is someone who is looked down upon by the purists of the chiropractic profession. We work very closely with MD's and PT's and have no problem refferring patients out. I sometimes wish I had prescription priviliges so I could help an acute patient with severe muscle spasm or pain due to a disc herniation. Meds are great when they're necessary. Sadly, they're abused as a method of treatment by MD's because it's the easy way out.

I hope to either end up in the Neuro/Ortho area of nursing, or do the family practice thing in a private office setting. I think that both my training and extensive experience in Neuro/Ortho will definitely come in handy if I do decide to go in that direction.

Trauma Columnist · May 12, 2009

Agree chirodoc.

chirodoc · May 12, 2009

Anybody have any input on whether you think I will have to put up with more BS as a student if the people I work with/for know that I'm also a doctor?

zenman · May 12, 2009

Most will probably be too busy to care. Since you're already in healthcare, you also probably have thicker skin by now, lol!

westcoastgirl · May 12, 2009

since Ortho would be a great fit for you and you've expressed an interest, why not call around the orthos in your area and see what they like to hire?

forpath · May 12, 2009

Just curious...why not med school?

And good luck no matter what you do. It's courageous to leave what one does every day.

chirodoc · May 12, 2009

Just curious...why not med school?
And good luck no matter what you do. It's courageous to leave what one does every day.

I'm 32 and already have a very successful chiropractic practice. Med school is another 8 years of classes, exams and extremely high stress with no pay. 1st 1.5-2 years of chiro school are harder than med school. So I really do not wish to re-live that experience again.

I don't want to stop doing what I do. I want to be able to do more for my patients, and being an NP will allow me to do that.

core0 · May 12, 2009

Well, I'm sure this will get flamed by some people, but I'm hoping for mostly positive/constructive feedback.
I'm a practicing DC (Doctor of Chiropractic) who is applying to accelerated BSN/FNP programs. I'm not disillusioned with my profession, and I would say I'm very good at what I do. I have more than enough income to keep me happy so it's not about money. I just want to be able to do more for my patients. I found that more than half of the patients in my practice either hate their PCP, or don't even have one. Plus, I've been trying to get some kind of an affiliation with a hospital in the NYC area (my practice is in Park Slope, Brooklyn) so I think being an NP will help me. I plan on practicing both, family medicine and chiropractic medicine.
Any thoughts/suggestions/comments would be appreciated. Do you think I'll have it easier/tougher/about the same as other students? Do you think that having 7 years experience will help me or hurt me? Do you think that I will get it tougher during hospital rotations if people know that I'm a chiropractor?

Normally I wouldn't really comment on this since it is an NP board but why NP not PA? With your experience you would be able to get into PA school relatively easily. You might have to update a few classes at most. The great majority of the ortho positions are filled by PAs. As far as practice acts in NY the PA and NP practice acts are very similar. As a PA you need a supervising physician that does not have to be on site. For NPs you need a collaborating physician with a protocol signed by the physician. You are looking at least three years for an accelerated FNP program vs two years for a PA program (to say nothing of the sheer mass of PA programs in NY).

There are two issues that you are going to face. One is that you will have to be very careful that you are not billing medically for chiropractic procedures. The other is to find a physician that will be comfortable with someone who also does chiropractic medicine. State boards may also have a problem with someone that is under both the board of chiropractic medicine and either the board of nursing or medicine in terms of setting scope and liability. That being said we had two chiropractors in my class that had no problem finding jobs in pain and sports medicine. They both ended up working with DO's who may be more accepting of chiropractic than allo's.

David Carpenter, PA-C