Wake-up Call We need a fresh approach to business education “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X I n 2012, chiropractor and expert Dr. Mark Sanna, member of the American Chiro -practic Association (ACA) Governor’s Advisory Board and member of the President’s Circle for two chiropractic colleges, reported that total North American chiropractic college enrolment had fallen from a high of 15,398 in 1996 to just over 10,000. This 5,000-plus drop represents a 35 per cent decrease in student enrolment overall. He sug -gested that many factors may be responsible for the decline including lack of referrals by disenchanted chiropractors who felt they had not been well prepared for practice upon leaving school. In 2007, the third annual Chiropractic College Alumni Survey asked chiropractors from five different chiropractic schools who graduated in the years 2000, 2002 and 2004 the following question: Were you prepared for business and practice management when you graduated? An average of 90 per cent of the chiropractors reported that they were not. The words of Malcolm X (above) are very prophetic whether you are a chiropractor today, a chiropractic student or a chiropractic college. Chiropractic school enrolment is down, the numbers of chiropractors leaving the profession are at an all-time high, and a record number of chiropractors graduating from school are not confident enough to open their own practices. Although most don’t see it, this is the perfect opportunity for economic and business growth in our profession. But if chiropractic colleges, chiroprac -tors and chiropractic students don’t act fast, we may miss out on adjusting the future. KNOWING THE FACTS “Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control.” – Richard Kline With the knowledge of Dr. Sanna’s report and access to the 2007 Chiropractic College Alumni Survey, I prepared a survey of my own to see how chiropractors today feel about the business training they received in chiropractic college. One hundred fifty-three chi -ropractors from Canada and the United States answered my survey. Please see Figure 1 for a summary of the results I obtained. Ironically, these results echo the results of the large survey conducted in 2007 where it was found that only about 10 per cent of chiropractors felt prepared to enter practice. The majority of chiropractors in my survey reported fear as the biggest reason chiroprac -tors are not opening their practice so I asked the 153 chiropractors surveyed what their Dr. Anthony Lombardi is a private consultant to athletes in the NFL, CFL and NHL, and founder of Ham -ilton Back Clinic, a multidisciplinary clinic. He teaches his fundamental EXSTORE Assessment System and practice building workshops to vari-ous health professionals. For more information, visit www.exstore.ca. Anthony J. Lombardi, DC FIGuRE 1. 2013 SuRvEY – TWO SIMPLE QuESTIONS 1. Do (or did) you feel confident enough to start 2. How do you feel your chiropractic college your own practice or to run your own business prepared you to run your own viable practice? once graduated from chiropractic school? • I feel I was poorly prepared 64 (53.8%) • Not at all confident 46 (38.7%) • I feel I was weakly prepared • Little confidence 38 (31.9%) 47 (39.5%) • I feel I was well prepared • Very confident 16 (13.4%) 26 (21.8%) www.canadianchiropractor.ca 12 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | MAY 2013
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