While you are a student, the last thing you might be thinking about is being involved with The Alumni Association. I mean that’s for graduates right? Well, our Alumni Association does some great things for students, too.

One example, which I have written about in earlier blogs, is that they find practicing physicians to mentor and sponsor student attendance at events like our homecoming celebration. They also sometimes have listings for used equipment that some of our alumni would like to hand down to us as future chiropractors.

Because we had a school holiday for Martin Luther King Day, I got the opportunity to take advantage of another service offered by this group, Doc Shadowing. It’s a good idea to check out a few clinics while still in school so that you can get an idea of how you do and don’t want to practice once you are out in the real world, diploma in hand. I gave my information to them toward the end of the last term, and was given an email introduction to a National grad who was willing to have me come and see how he runs his office for the day.

I learned a lot during my visit, and had a lot of things to reflect on afterward. Would I ever want to practice in this way? No. But, that doesn’t mean that there was anything outwardly wrong about the way he practices, I don’t see it as being how I would like to work.

One of the biggest takeaways for me was seeing how he was able to quietly and effectively manage his team, making the transitions between patients appear seamless. Retaining staff is an essential part of keeping things moving smoothly; one of the chiropractic assistants had worked in that office for eight years, and I had heard that one of his massage therapists had been around for almost 20. This office was busy, though he commented that it was a “slow” day. I could see the value of having the reliable people working for you to do all the things that don’t fall under the job description of “being the doctor,” so that you have more time to do just that. As a chiropractic physician, delegating certain tasks helps you remain free to work with more patients, increasing revenue for your practice.

In other news, a new term has begun with all sorts of exciting things on the horizon! I am firmly in the 7th trimester of the DC program now, though I am breaking the whole thing up into two terms to meet my clinic requirements for the acupuncture program. I will be spending this term and the next ironing out all of the details to make sure that when I enter the clinic in the fall, I can hit the ground running. So look out, some posts on seminars and internship opportunities are coming your way!