COVER STORY PROFESSION ON THE TREND A Results from our 5th annual Practice Trends Survey BY CND STAFF lthough we can’t by any means extrap-olate these survey results from the 211 responses we obtained to the entirety of the profession, survey results like these can help facilitate discussion, moving chiropractic forward. Please note: Al-though we invited our ND readership to participate in the survey, we didn’t garner enough entries from the survey to include the findings this year. The majority of our respondents were from Ontario (43%), followed by B.C. (29%) and Alberta (14%). These numbers are in line with previous years of the survey. Case management and earnings This year, 36% of respondents have been in practice 20-29 years, and 21% of respondents have been in prac-tice for over 30 years. Those who practised less than 10 years hovered at 22%. Working in a multidisciplinary clinic with complemen-tary health care providers (RMT, naturopath, etc) and no MDs, was once again the top choice for chiros in Canada, accounting for a whopping 64% of responses, while most of the remainder (18%) operate their busi-nesses as a solo practice. Once again, males were more likely to work as solo practitioners – this year all female respondents selected multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary with, or without MDs. Despite the statistic nearly dou-bling last year, chiropractors working within clinics with other medical practitioners (MDs) has not grown, and stayed relatively stable from last year (8% in 2019, vs 10% in 2018). The majority who have been practising for under five years report their net annual earnings in 2019 as “under $25,000” (40%). The majority of these practitioners practising for under 5 years spent 31-40 hours in clinical practice (60%), seeing 41-100 patients per week (60%). Chiropractors over the age of 45 (and have been in 10 Chiropractic and Naturopathic Doctor December 2020 practice for more than 20 years) were the only cohort to work in a solo practice. The bulk of this age group re-ported net annual earnings between $51,000 to $150,000, spending between 21-40 hours per week in clinical prac-tice, and seeing 41-100+ patients per week. Earning supplemental income from product sales was the most popular choice among all chiropractors (54%), but those older than 45 were more likely to have no other supple-mental income than their younger colleagues. Scope of practice, loss of income, biggest challenges More chiropractors are warming up to the idea of expand-ing the scope of practice. This year, the question didn’t specify “prescription rights,” but instead offered the op-tion of being “interested”or “open to the idea of expand-ing the scope of practice. 60% selected “Yes, depending on what evolves with research” and 25% selected “No, there’s no need to change anything to my scope of prac-tice. 15% were “indifferent” to a change. Despite the survey taking place in the latter half of 2020, the income statements/numbers we ask for are always from the previous tax year. Due to the COVID-19 pan-demic, we asked our readership: “Do you expect to see/ have you seen a marked decrease in income/earnings for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic? (All answers are www.Cndoctor.ca Photo: © ty / Adobe Stock
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