January 2014 John Weeks Integrator Round-Up: Academics

New York Chiropractic College announces participation in two of five of the historic VA chiropractic residencies

In a recent release, New York Chiropractic College (NYCC) announced that it will be Affiliated with VA Residencies at Two of Five Selected VA Facilities. The historic, "full-time, year-round, paid chiropractic residency program" is slated to begin this coming July 2014. The annual salaries will range between $36,000 and $43,000 (based on geographic location). Elements will include: clinical educational rotations through such services as primary care, medical or surgical specialties, mental health, and rehabilitation disciplines; participation in a variety of scholarly activities; and "giving and attending academic and research presentations at the VA facility and its affiliates." NYCC Paul Dougherty, DC and Andy Dunn, DC will mentor residents under the NYCC program. The program is administered nationally by VA's Office of Academic Affiliations and locally by the individual VA facility. In addition, the residency programs will enjoy the benefit of a VA facility affiliation with the only Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) accredited chiropractic schools.

by John Weeks, Publisher/Editor of The Integrator Blog News & Reports

New York Chiropractic College announces participation in two of five of the historic VA chiropractic residencies

In a recent release, New York Chiropractic College (NYCC) announced that it will be Affiliated with VA Residencies at Two of Five Selected VA Facilities. The historic, "full-time, year-round, paid chiropractic residency program" is slated to begin this coming July 2014. The annual salaries will range between $36,000 and $43,000 (based on geographic location). Elements will include: clinical educational rotations through such services as primary care, medical or surgical specialties, mental health, and rehabilitation disciplines; participation in a variety of scholarly activities; and "giving and attending academic and research presentations at the VA facility and its affiliates." NYCC Paul Dougherty, DC and Andy Dunn, DC will mentor residents under the NYCC program. The program is administered nationally by VA's Office of Academic Affiliations and locally by the individual VA facility. In addition, the residency programs will enjoy the benefit of a VA facility affiliation with the only Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) accredited chiropractic schools.

Chiropractic accrediting agency receives renewed federal approval for 3 years, despite battle

The story in the December 13, 2013 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education was entitled "Chiropractic Accreditor Gets Federal Panel's Approval, Despite Protest." The article recounted the saga of the very public battle inside of the chiropractic field over the future of chiropractic. The writer captured the five hours of testimony, in part, this way: "Both critics and supporters of the Council on Chiropractic Education's practices spoke at Thursday's hearing. The complaints largely center on charges that the accreditor is pushing chiropractic care away from its traditions of manipulating the spine and toward treatments that might be handled by other medical professionals, including performing minor surgery and prescribing some medicines."

Then: "Dozens of speakers, mostly students and professional practitioners, had signed up to oppose the accreditor, which is the only agency approved to set standards for chiropractic programs. An institution or program must be accredited by a federally recognized accreditor in order for its students to receive federal grants or student loans." On the vote: "Several members of the advisory panel, however, said the dispute was a philosophical and professional disagreement outside their jurisdiction. Of the 14 panel members who were present, only three voted not to accept the Education Department's recommendation."

Comment: The story reminds me of the picture of the hapless fellow, out on a limb, busy sawing at a section of the branch that is connecting his perch to the trunk of a tree. One wonders if the students and practitioners who spoke truly wanted to create the chaos in chiropractic education that removal of access to student loans would have produced. The response of the protesters to the concern about moving away from chiropractic’s traditions is, essentially, to break its knee-caps. This feels like the kind of scorched earth polarization that infects national policy. Here's hoping that all the students and doctors of chiropractic can begin to live with an acceptance of the actual pluralism in their field. It’s there. It’s real. It isn’t changing. Futurist Clement Bezold, PhD gave the field guidance on this March 2014 in his keynote for the Association of Chiropractic Colleges-Research Agenda Conference. He no longer called for unity in the field. He called for co-habitation.

Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine to break-ground on 47,000 square foot, new building, expansion

The blog posting from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM) opens like this: "The chance to transform a college comes along once in a generation! A 47,000 square foot addition to our Tempe Campus will house a teaching kitchen, healthy cafe, regenerative pain and rehabilitation center, expanded medicinary, state of the art classrooms and study space, exercise rooms and will expand our library four-fold!" According to Paul Mittman, ND, EdD, SCNM's president and CEO, this SCNM-designed building comes on the heels of record-level enrollment, expanding demand for clinical services, significant growth in a key public health/community medicine partnership, and with plans for expansion into new clinical initiatives and academic programs. SCNM is contracting with internationally-acclaimed healthcare designer Jain Malkin for interior design. On January 8, 2014, Mittman and SCNM are hosting their groundbreaking ceremony on the $9.7-million facility which is to be LEED certified. The institution, founded in 1993, presently offers just a naturopathic medical program, with growing student enrollment at between 400-450.

Comment: Having has the opportunity to sit in on an early 1990 meeting when SCNM was a dream lifted by naturopathic doctors Michael and Kyle Cronin, Konrad Kail and others, I can only offer my deepest respect for what labors it has taken, by the founders, and since, during the Mittman presidency, to arrive at this moment. Congratulations! Here's to holding the line on construction costs!