Holistic RN or chiropractic?

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I am a premed student in portland oregon. i got accepted into chiropractic school but was warned that it might be difficult to make a living as a chiropractor. I have a BA but i am now working on pre-reqs to get an RN degree. i can go to chiropractic school this fall if i decide to do it because i was already accepted.

Do holistic nurses

-work in hospitals or private clinics?

-are there a lot of them, are they paid well, is it a recognized profession?

I would like to work and provide care using natural healing modalities that might include massage, chiropractic, naturopathic, and nutrition counselling. In other words, i want to help people who are sick, help them to detox and be healthy, and get paid to do this, and be happy and successful, and work with a group of doctors or caring people to help support the sick and encourage them to get well. is that what holistic nursing is? or should i go for chiropractic.

Thanks!

A Bell

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I am a premed student in portland oregon. i got accepted into chiropractic school but was warned that it might be difficult to make a living as a chiropractor. I have a BA but i am now working on pre-reqs to get an RN degree. i can go to chiropractic school this fall if i decide to do it because i was already accepted.

Do holistic nurses

-work in hospitals or private clinics?

-are there a lot of them, are they paid well, is it a recognized profession?

I would like to work and provide care using natural healing modalities that might include massage, chiropractic, naturopathic, and nutrition counselling. In other words, i want to help people who are sick, help them to detox and be healthy, and get paid to do this, and be happy and successful, and work with a group of doctors or caring people to help support the sick and encourage them to get well. is that what holistic nursing is? or should i go for chiropractic.

Thanks!

A Bell

Why aren't you following through with Premed out of curiosity. Chiropractors have worked wonders for me and a good chiropractor is an amazing and very important practitioner of healthcare in my opinion. However, you will not find many people in mainstream healthcare i..e doctors, PT's and nurses telling you that. It's really sad to hear physical therapists talk about chiropractors. The former has never done anything worthwhile for me. However, this is coming from a future nurse who is a big proponent of alternative medicine. I think holistic nursing is a wonderful field of nursing to get into. I like it because it allows you more often than not to go against the grain of western medicine which for all intents and purposes is heavily based on drugs and invasive surgery unfortunately.

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Oh and by the way a good Chiro can make very good money. There are a lot of bad ones out there though that give the field a negative stigma. Atleast you can be in business for yourself. Chiro is a really neat field. You can incorporate so much in providing care for your patients. Nutrition, massage....i.e. like you mentioned.

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You do realize, right, that nursing school will be almost entirely based on "Western" medicine and there will be little or no mention of the "natural healing modalities" you mention in your original post? That would be additional training/education you could choose to pursue after you graduated, but it is not part of any standard nursing school curriculum. You would have to pass the same licensing exam, and would receive the same RN license, as all the rest of us.

There are probably lots of people here who can give you more information about holistic nursing than I can, and maybe you'll get more responses. However, since you asked about working in hospitals, I will say that I've been working in hospitals (in several different states) for >20 years now, and spent the last several years working as a hospital surveyor/inspector for my state (so I went into, literally, most of the hospitals in the state!), and I have never encountered any nurse employed as a "holistic nurse," or primarily using the modalities you mentioned, in any hospital. Nor have I ever seen an employment ad or job posting for a "holistic nurse." I would imagine that nurses who choose to employ natural/complementary therapies as the focus of their practices work in private, outpatient clinics/businesses with other like-minded practitioners.

It is a recognized specialty within nursing, but my impression is that you would pretty much have to create your own path and opportunities.

There is a holistic nursing association; you may find more information of interest to you there.

http://ahna.org/home/home.html

Welcome to allnurses, and best wishes for your journey.

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I thought my husband could best answer your question, as he is a Chiropractor and has worked with all kinds of other health care providers.

You have an intersting opportunity. Here in Utah, you could become a nurse practioner, which are peer-reviewed by other NP's and do not have to work under an MD or DO supervisor, but I don't know if that is allowed in Oregon. A BSN is a worthwhile degree, but will likely put you into an administrative position rather than direct patient care. Western States has one of the best Chiropractic programs in the world, and if you practice in Oregon you will have the broadest scope of practice. The business of medicine presents the same risk and benefits as it has in the past, and relies not only how well you can perform your clinical and technical skills, but also how well you can run a business. I am licensed as a Chiropractic physician in Utah, and formally as a Chiropractor in California before moving to Utah, and feel it was a good choice. For you it will depend on what you want to do. If you enjoy hands on direct patient care, along with using diagnostic tests, from the start to the end of care, with you providing all of the care yourself, in a sole proprietor out patient clinic, then you should consider going to WSCC and earning a DC degree. If prefer administrative work, in a multi-disciplinary setting, either a Hospital or large facility, and you are less interested in providing direct care, and want to supervise and manage patients, then you might be happier doing something else. You could, of course, do both, but that is a lot of time, effort and expense. Neither nursing or Chiropractic are dying professions, and have lots of room to grow. Of course, if you aren't sure if you want to be be a DC, or perhaps might want to have a broader scope of practice, like being an MD, you might consider becoming a DO, an Ostepathic physician (a medical doctor, who also has some adjusting skills similar to a Dc, and is more holistic in perspective). My younger brother choose this option, in Texas, and has been very happy. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely yours, Dr. Haggart

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Specializes in Critical Care.

i don't know much about oregon and am not a nurse yet, but here is my experience with holistic medicine around where i live: university of michigan health system has an integrative component which consists of clinical medicine, research and education. the clinic offers integrative medicine, anthroposophic medicine, holistic women's health, integrative pharmacist, holistic nutrition, massage therapy, and acupuncture. i personally went to the holistic women's health clinic. there was 1 doctor who was an md but decided that she wanted to practice holistically rather than just conventional medicine. there were also 2 nurses. i only actually had my visits with the 1 nurse who specialized in women's health. there is much more on the u of m website than i can say here. here is the url if you want to take a look [color=#606420]http://www.med.umich.edu/umim/

i have been interested in more of a holistic approach to medicine for a while so tend to notice when it is offered. i personally think that it is a growing field, albeit slowly. i also think that there is a place for both traditional (western) medicine and alternative types and that they would be best used in combination with each other. i have gone to a chiropractor and have been helped by him. my concern is not "can chriro's help or not" but "i hope i get one who is a good one and not bad" since there are a fair number of bad chiropractors out there. however, i did not tell my doctor that i went to a chiropractor because he does not believe in they do you any good. :o i have my thinking, he has his. it didn't stop me from going.:) i don't know what he thinks about holistic medicine because i didn't tell him that i went to the women's health clinic either. he is a very good doctor in all other respects, just not very open to alternative medicine. my sister goes to an acupuncturist that was the only one who helped her after going to many doctors and taking several types of medicines. she pays out of her own pocket because the insurance won't pay for acupuncture. i think the acupuncturist charges around 75$ for a visit. he is always busy and is not close to her house but she goes anyway because he helps her. that is my experience with holistic type medicine. i think it would be worth investigating more about it for you before making a decision to go into chiro or nursing. are there any university based hospitals in your area? or a teaching hospital? they may have more cutting edge programs. :rolleyes: good luck.

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Thanks for the great advice. I'm a University of Michigan graduate by the way - i got my BA in English from UM.

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I am a premed student in portland oregon. i got accepted into chiropractic school but was warned that it might be difficult to make a living as a chiropractor. I have a BA but i am now working on pre-reqs to get an RN degree. i can go to chiropractic school this fall if i decide to do it because i was already accepted.

Do holistic nurses

-work in hospitals or private clinics?

-are there a lot of them, are they paid well, is it a recognized profession?

I would like to work and provide care using natural healing modalities that might include massage, chiropractic, naturopathic, and nutrition counselling. In other words, i want to help people who are sick, help them to detox and be healthy, and get paid to do this, and be happy and successful, and work with a group of doctors or caring people to help support the sick and encourage them to get well. is that what holistic nursing is? or should i go for chiropractic.

Thanks!

A Bell

Go to the link and read the part titled "bitten by chiropractic"http://randi.org/jr/2006-01/010620monkey.html

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(A reader, formerly a chiropractor, and who wishes anonymity) First off trust me if he was a real chiropractic doctor and felt this way he would be suing the school. Some have tried.

I am not buying this article I read for a minute. First off from a paranormal site, .You can't just sit on your backside in any profession and expect the money to be rolling in. Chiropractic ,like any other you have to have business sense and market your self along with, your skills and study very hard at what you do. If you are shy, your skills are poor, no business sense, then being a doctor period is not good choice. If you want to look at a great Chiropractic site try chirioweb.com.

Don't mean to offend I just can't believe a doctor that is this mad won't be shouting it from the roof tops.

Go to the link and read the part titled "bitten by chiropractic"http://randi.org/jr/2006-01/010620monkey.html
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There is also this site:http://www.chirobase.org/03Edu/botnick.html and this onehttp://www.chirobase.org/index.html.

Finally: Randi.org is not a "paranormal site" it is a skeptic site.

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I just have to say that chiropractic has helped me tremendously. Back pain, neck pain, hip pain, allergies etc. It has also helped me have a better attitude becuase when you are in a lot pain it is hard to be happy all the time,although not impossible.

Many chiropractors have pre-med degress and another 4 years of training.There are many techniques from non-force adjusting to high force adjusting and you can chose which one to go too. I like having options to chose from! http://WWW.chiroweb.com is a good website. Pubmed has chiropractic articles also. You could also search Dysafferentation.

It takes a little time to find one that you like because they will have their hands on you to make an adjustment,so you will have to have that level of trust there.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16423302&query_hl=7&itool=pubmed_docsum

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Specializes in Too many to list.

What about becoming a naturopath? They incorporate much of what you say you want to do. In Connecticut, you could make a fine living and offer much needed alternative approaches to wellness as well as disease treatment modalities. Choosing a place that supports this kind of treatment is key. The populace in this area is very open to choice and they have the money to pay out of pocket as much will not be paid for by insurance. Nurses working in holistic areas that I know of are massage therapists, polarity therapists, or are working for homeopaths. or naturopaths, sometimes for MD's in integrative medical practice. And you could take the integrative medical route yourself (i.e. Dr.Andrew Weil). Good luck.

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