Milestone in Education New chiropractic program in British Columbia I n British Columbia (B.C.), the end of 2008 is being celebrated with an exciting new venture in chiropractic education. On Saturday, November 8, amongst rising mountain mists in Whistler, members of the British Columbia College of Chiropractors (BCCC) and British Columbia Chiropractic Association (BCCA) voted in favour of supporting a new chiropractic education program in their province. Plans for this program have been evolving for a few years but took a leap forward over the past year, with various large-scale obstacles falling out of the way. The profession in B.C. is now looking to a university-based program which will be housed in a sports and interdisciplinary health and education complex to be built by the Burnaby Mountain Sport and Medicine (BMSM) company. “There are many to recognize including the public members of the BCCA Education committee, in B.C. There remains much to be done by the profession.” says Dr. Don Nix- dorf, executive director for the BCCC and BCCA, who has been spearheading this initiative from the chiropractic side. WHERE WE’VE BEEN Nixdorf, along with BCCC colleagues, Drs. David Olson, Debbie Wright, Patrick Bickert, Heather McLeod, Blake Cameron, Doug Alderson, and Brad Dickson, among others, have been speaking for several years with chiropractors, B.C. universities, the B.C. government and the public regarding the necessity and feasibility of this project. Several false starts made the possibility of a chiropractic program in western Canada appear bleak but Nixdorf and those involved persevered, believing that “bleak” did not equal “impossible”. The interest shown in chiropractic research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and, also, at Simon Fraser University (SFU) fueled their conviction that a chiropractic pro- gram could be realized. “The opportunity to create a research chair still remains a short term objective involving discussions with Dr. Peter Ruben, a professor at Simon Fraser University,” says Nixdorf. Establishing a program in any discipline, requires a great deal of planning in the areas of academic programming, accreditation, university approval, faculty recruitment, facilities design, post-graduate studies, and of course funding. But, on November 8, the BCCC and BCCA boards presented, to attendees at the 2008 annual general meeting, the results of their efforts, thus far, at addressing these requirements and creating a Canadian DC program in the west. They demonstrated that a chiropractic program housed at BMSM is a boon for the public and the profession – both in Canada and abroad. THE CASE FOR UNIVERSITY-BASED CHIROPRACTIC EDUCATION Health care, including chiropractic, is facing many challenges at this point in time, and with each challenge comes an opportunity for growth. Public knowledge of chiropractic is at an all-time high, but, still, is nowhere near an optimal level. There are many people out there who are not aware of the benefi ts of chiropractic care. Fueling this is the fact that the pro- fession is lacking some crucial components, which could raise this level of recognition and confi dence. Among these are university-based chiropractic programs and research initiatives. Currently, chiropractic has made great strides in increasing its presence in the university set- ting, with numerous research chairs being established across the country. Dr. Silvano Mior, professor and Special Assistant to the President at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC), university-based programs facilitate important inter-disciplinary clinical and research communication. This breaks down barriers and prejudices that are keeping the profession from realizing its full potential in academic and public spheres. As well, being based in a university setting can provide access to funding for further research initiatives and improved educational programming. Dr. André-Marie Gonthier, president of the Ordre des Chiropraticiens du Québec, agreed, 8 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | DECEMBER 2008 www.canadianchiropractor.ca feature
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