Guest Lecture - Panel #2

Today we had seven leaders of the profession present for our panel. Our panel included: Dr. Richard Brown, the new secretary General of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC), Mr. Heitshu, the Director of Government Affairs and Policy for the CCA, Dr. Dunn, CEO of the Canadian Chiropractic Protective Association, Dr. Haig, CEO of the Ontario Chiropractic Association, Ms. Wilson, Registrar and General Counsel for the College of Chiropractors of Ontario, and Dr. Kinsinger, Educator on professionalism and ethics at CMCC. Dr. Brown spoke first on the sort of work he does with the WFC. He talked about how the WFC is trying to enable chiropractors to come together as one group. He said the WFC is built on four pillars: support, empowerment, promotion and unity. He also mentioned that WFC’s members aren’t individuals; they are associations of chiropractors that come together to empower and promote the profession internationally. Mr. Heitshu spoke on behalf of the CCA and discussed how our focus needs to be on the patients and how we become their preferred choice for MSK health. Patient first approach to care is the starting point for our profession as we are the best at diagnosing MSK health. He also discussed the prevalence of MSK conditions in the workplace, and has discussed how we need to start a relationship with our armed forces (as the USA have done) because they suffer from MSK conditions and can benefit from our expertise. Dr. Haig discussed forwarding our interests in order to sustain and advance our profession so that we can be successful in practice. These are both short term and long-term goals. We need tools and support in order to be successful in everyday practice. We need to impact and incorporate the different platforms that affect the patient decision-making – which includes: social media, the government, doctors, other people and environments. He discussed that we can tackle these areas by being advocates. Dr. Dunn talked about how we can’t be healers (chiropractors) without the framework behind it that includes, the associations, governments and organizations. He works for the Canadian Chiropractor Protective Association (CCPA) that was created by chiropractors to protect chiropractors. They give us newsletters with relevant information that is important to us, they give us contact information to contact them if we run into issues (i.e. unhappy patient, a hot disc that goes bad) and they give us legal counsel to protect us. This makes me excited that I can be apart of a profession that is supportive and that will be a major part of the healthcare system by 2023. Ms. Wilson talked about once you graduate you need to register with a regulatory body depending on your jurisdiction. In Ontario there are 26 self-regulating health professions, which includes chiropractic. This information is good to have because we are not introduced to it in class and it gives us the other side of chiropractic that we might not have considered or have been aware of. Dr. Kinsinger talked about how engaging in professional practice has been characterized as a moral undertaking. Thus, virtue ethics is an important character trait that chiropractors need for the basis of decision-making. In our profession he believes having an understanding of social contract and moral agency will help us. Social contract can be understood as a deal, we have expectations and requirements that we exchange with society as part of a transaction. We get a lifted status as long as we promise to work in the best interests of our patients. Our role in moral agency includes understanding what is right and wrong.

Take home: The relevance of this talk is without it we wouldn’t have the legality or licensing to practice without the framework that the organizations and associations have built. With regards to regulating bodies: In order to practice your profession you are going to have to belong to a regulatory body by meeting these requirements: graduate from a credited institution, complete the exams, complete the ethics exam, have malpractice insurance and have to be of good character.