Surveys are important. They not only give us a sense of where the profession is, but also where it is going. In a recent one (Dynamic Chiropractic, 1-15-11), 57% of chiropractors polled said that they would rather work “as part of a multi-disciplinary hospital team” than in a solo practice. What does that say about the chiropractic profession today relative to say, 50 years ago? Fifty years ago the profession:
… saw medicine and chiropractic as antagonistic.
… had a different objective than medicine.
… had a desire to be independent.
… felt that doing medical procedures was not only not chiropractic, but that they were dangerous and potentially harmful to people.
We have moved from seeing medicine as the enemy to considering ourselves competitive, to an “alternative,” to wanting to be part of their team. What ever happened to the idea that we are not even in the same ballgame?
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Surveys CAN be important but if so, the source of the survey must also be considered, and also those who are being surveyed. It was surprising to see that more that a handful of chiropractors would rather work “as part of a multi-disciplinary hospital team” but we absolutely could not believe that 57% felt that way. After pulling out a back-issue of Today’s Chiropractic Lifestyle to verify it the claim we realized we had the wrong magazine in mind… We unsubscribed to Dynamic Chiropractic years ago because of articles primarily focusing on treatments, insurance coding, and legal issues.
With this in mind we can understand how the readers of certain periodicals would respond to surveys in certain ways. We wonder what the survey results might be if the readers of the Pivot Review were presented with the same poll.
It would hardly surprise if it were learned the publishers of Dynamic Chiropractic were in some way connected to the AMA or some other “healthcare”/medical institution. Whatever they call themselves, they are not a chiropractic rag. A rat can call himself a squirrel all day long, but if he eats garbage instead of gathering nuts he’s still a rat.