The Chiropractic Journey (Dr. Jenkins) Part II

Well you have made it through the first year of learning. Probably by now you are sick of studying, homework assignments, and tests. It is to be expected that is for sure. When you double the course load that you are used to in undergrad it is quite a change, and a huge commitment at the same time. But the good news is that you made it and the fun stuff is about to begin.

In the second year you pretty much gather up everything you learn and mold it all together so you can see how it relates to a patient. Right now you have a lot of raw knowledge in your memory with names and facts about nerves, muscles, bones, and every system of the body. Now you take that knowledge and see when a part is not working properly how it can affect the function of the human body. You learn this in classes such as physical diagnosis, radiology, and neuromusculoskeletal diagnosis. It is extremely interesting, and empowering, to see how conditions come about and what you can do to help heal them.

But the most exciting, and sometimes intimidating, part of the second year is the technique classes. This is where you learn how to adjust a patient's spine. It is truly an exciting time when you learn to master a new and complicated skill such as this. You learn about the power of the adjustment and how it can have great positive affects to the nervous system, but at the same time you can see the potential negative power if not used properly. These technique classes would have to be one of the best parts of the whole education that is for sure.

One more part about the second year is the extracurricular clubs that you can join. Because your study load has decreased it frees time for you to expand on the education that you learn in class. At Palmer there is somewhere from 12-15 technique clubs that you can be a member of. This enables you to research, and be exposed to, the many various ways in which a chiropractic adjustment can be done. This allows you to figure out what fits best in to your paradigm and expand on it from there. Also, there is other clubs of interest, international and state clubs, student council, intramurals and the list goes on and on. These extracurricular activities allow you to meet even more people who have the same interests as you. It is something I would highly recommend doing because as they say with education, as well as anything in life, "The more you put in to it, the more you get out of it."

Well that about takes care of the second year. It is a little bit of "calm" before the "storm" of the last year and a half, which I will talk about next month. Until then if you have any questions feel free to contact me at DrJenkins@spineguys.com.

Yours in health,
Dr. K.B. Jenkins, D.C.