25 Oct An insight into: Amelia’s final year
When Amelia isn’t working on reception, she’s busy completing her chiropractic degree. Here she tells us about what being a fourth-year chiro student looks like:
‘I have now started my final year of my chiropractic degree. During this year, I am seeing patients as a student chiropractor in a chiropractic clinic built by my university, where I am supervised by experienced qualified chiropractors.
Every aspect of the consultation and treatment has to be signed off by a clinic tutor. In the consultation, we go through a history and a full clinical examination. This normally lasts about an hour and a half. Treatment at the student clinic isn’t performed on the first visit like in most chiropractic clinics. Instead, we go away, do our research and come up with a care plan for the patient that would get them better as quickly as possible based on the evidence. The second visit is then a report of findings and treatment where we go through everything with the patient and begin treating their problem.
Depending on the condition, as part of my treatment I use the diversified technique for adjustments, soft tissue techniques including trigger point therapy, therapeutic massage, active and passive release techniques and muscle energy techniques, shockwave therapy, drop tables, activator and more!
So far in the clinic I have seen multiple cases of back pain and neck pain, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, tennis elbow, muscle spasms and hip flexor tendonitis. The first few consultations, I found quite difficult. Having to put 3 years of knowledge into an hour and a half was a massive task but once I got some practice, I got more confident in my abilities and now feel much more comfortable doing a full exam and treatments.
I’m really enjoying finally being able to treat patients and learning more about day-to-day life as a chiropractor. It feels like all the hard work has finally paid off! I can’t wait to see who else comes into the clinic and what other conditions I can learn about and help with!’’
If you’re interested in finding out more about Amelia’s studies and experiences as an undergrad please do feel free to chat to her whilst waiting for your appointment.
