Chiropractic Education

Training to become a chiropractor generally takes about seven to eight years of college (four undergraduate years followed by three to five at chiropractic college) and then a clinical internship.

In the United States, the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) accredits chiropractic programs and institutions.

To earn and maintain accreditation, chiropractic colleges must meet a variety of stringent requirements. Each program’s curriculum must include at least 4,200 instructional hours of course credits.

Once accepted into an accredited program, chiropractic students typically follow a curriculum like this:

First year

• General anatomy
• Histology
• Chiropractic principles
• Palpation
• Human physiology
• Chiropractic procedures
• Embryology
• Introduction to physical examination
• Human biochemistry
• Clinical chiropractic
• Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology
• Normal radiographic anatomy
• Fundamentals of nutrition
• Functional anatomy/biomechanics
• Spinal anatomy

Second year

• Pharmatoxicology
• Pathology
• Chiropractic procedures
• Clinical orthopedics and neurology
• Community and public health
• Clinical nutrition
• Practice management
• Differential diagnosis
• Emergency care
• Clinical microbiology
• Chiropractic principles
• Physics of clinical imaging
• Nutritional assessment
• Physiological therapeutics
• Research methods
• Imaging interpretation
• Applied clinical chiropractic

Third year

• Integrated chiropractic clinical application
• Chiropractic principles
• Radiologic positioning and technique
• Clinical application of manual procedures
• Clinical internship
• Clinical psychology
• Pediatrics
• Clinical laboratory clerkship
• Original research project
• Physiological therapeutics
• Practice management
• Diagnostic imaging interpretation
• Differential diagnosis
• Dermatology
• Obstetrics and gynecology
• Geriatrics
• Ethics and jurisprudence

In the fourth year of chiropractic college, students work a clinical internship in a chiropractor’s office. In addition to treating patients under the supervision of an experienced chiropractor, many students also complete a clinical rotation at a hospital or veterans clinic.