Palmer Chiropractic

The Past, Present and Future Fountainheadof Chiropractic

 

By Guy F. Riekeman, D.C., President, PalmerCollege of Chiropractic, Palmer College of Chiropractic West and Palmer Center forChiropractic Research

 

     People who are reading the Chiropractic media today are seeing the name Palmer more and more often. Sometimes our name is mentioned in a controversial, political context, sometimes in terms of multi-million dollar Federal grants or new faculty and administrative appointments. Chiropractic journal readers are probably wondering, “What’s going on at Palmer these days?” First, Chiropractic is alive and well on Brady Street Hill. As such, Palmer is re-asserting our leadership role as The Fountainhead of the Chiropractic profession. As the new president of the Palmer colleges, it is my privilege to explain this, and I thank Dr. Harrison for the opportunity.

            Those of you who know me understand my own commitment to excellence and integrity as well as my belief in the power and purpose of making commitments and holding people accountable for them. Palmer Chiropractic has made a commitment to the Chiropractic profession. Palmer Chiropractic, represented by the Palmer colleges in Davenport and San Jose and our newest program in Florida, as well as the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research, the Palmer Institute for Professional Advancement and the Palmer Foundation for Chiropractic History, will fulfill its rightful role as the past, present and future “Fountainhead.”

            With leadership comes increased responsibility, visibility, controversy and accountability. It’s a challenge we are prepared to take, and we are committed to a new aggressiveness in our leadership role. We are ready to make the tough decisions, to take the unpopular stand knowing that it’s right for our profession, and to accept the consequences.

            Rest assured that we are very serious about this commitment, and we have taken steps here at the Palmer colleges during the past few years that illustrate the seriousness of our commitment to leadership. We realize that our leadership role in educating the doctors of the future is key. And we are preparing our graduates to carry on our leadership position. We are not just educating chiropractors, but educating many of the future leaders of this profession.

 

The Palmer Triangle of Care

            To fulfill our aggressive leadership role in educating future chiropractors as well as unifying the profession and educating the public about Chiropractic, we have developed a diagram that we call the Palmer Triangle of Care.

            The ACC Paradigm is a wonderful document in that it created a base level of agreement among Chiropractic state, national and international organizations as to how we present ourselves to the world. What the ACC Paradigm does not reveal is how we fulfill this image through clinical practice.

            The world, it seems, is finally ready for Chiropractic. An educated population, the explosion of health care information on the Internet, a growing skepticism toward traditional allopathic medicine, and increasing interest in so-called “alternative medicine” and natural health care methods have resulted in fertile ground for the seeds of Chiropractic planted 106 years ago by D.D. Palmer.

            The question is now: Is Chiropractic ready for the world? Can the world grasp what it is without a lot of explanation? Can people realize it is a complete approach to health, not just a therapy for neck and back pain, or, conversely, just a loose framework for advice on healthy living? A simple diagram may provide the answer.

            What the Chiropractic profession desperately needs right now is a succinct definition of Chiropractic that is easy to explain and understand. Enter what we call the Palmer Triangle of Care.

            This diagram was the result of ongoing discussions and models based on some that I had used before, and augmented by the best minds at the Palmer colleges. We began this process several years ago when we first began discussing a revolutionary new curriculum that was common to our colleges. Administrators wanted a common framework and definition of Palmer Chiropractic philosophy and education.

            What we came up with was much more than that. The Palmer Triangle of Care (or as it’s known now in the profession “The Triangle of Care”) is an all-encompassing, all-inclusive yet concise definition of the practice of Chiropractic. Within all or some of its three aspects or domains - condition-based care, health care and wellness/development care - most chiropractors can find a home.

            When we break down the diagram, we find Palmer Chiropractic Philosophy, embodied by Palmer Tenets #1 and #2 (see attachment), on the outside of the circle. In short, we are recognizing the body’s intelligent ability to create and maintain itself in a state of dynamic health. The inside of the circle, with the subluxation at the center, defines a path of patient care. The beauty of this diagram and the definitions of each area carefully crafted by our administration and members of the faculty, is that they graphically explain how Chiropractic care is utilized by patients and D.C.s, and they are easily communicated to the lay person. The Chiropractic profession has long needed a visual way to describe Chiropractic care protocol — not clinical realities but patient utilization goals, although clinical criteria can be applied to each. The Palmer Triangle of Care allows chiropractors to describe to patients where they fit within the triune of care domains, what each domain encompasses, and how they might progress from one domain to the next during their lifetime.

            The Triangle does not identify clinical guidelines, but rather defines professional responsibilities. For example, within its framework, chiropractors may specialize in pediatrics, geriatrics, personal injury, etc., but not put their patients in an environment that exceeds their professional education and expertise. To use a very simplistic example, a chiropractor could certainly focus on care of pediatric patients, but it wouldn’t be appropriate then for them to dismiss their patients once they reach the age of 18. Rather it would be professionally incumbent on the D.C. to refer patients to another D.C. for ongoing are. The same would be true of a D.C. who specializes in personal injury work, but does not want to provide ongoing lifetime wellness care and vice versa. The Triangle focuses on continuity of care and appropriate changes in care throughout the different stages of a person’s life.

 

A New Way of Looking at Chiropractic Education

            What the Triangle has done for us here at Palmer is define the priorities of our educational process and the unique factors of the chiropractic identity (such as the subluxation) without restricting people’s desires for personal exploration, from our faculty and administration to our students and their patients. This diagram doesn’t restrict personal philosophies of patient responsibility, which includes such sensitive areas as diagnosis and referral. This diagram allows individual chiropractors to practice according to their own philosophies, and to easily communicate these philosophies to their patients.

            Several years ago we embarked on an ambitious restructuring of the curriculum at Palmer College. Our goal was to make a Palmer Chiropractic education more meaningful for students and to graduate more successful chiropractors. We have come to realize that GPAs and success on National Boards is not necessarily an indication that a graduate will be a success in Chiropractic practice. Our administrators and faculty felt that the traditional, lecture-style model of education was outmoded and not as effective as other, more advanced methods.

            We wanted to begin the clinical education, as well as the discussion of personal and practice ethics and business management, earlier in the educational process. And we wanted to ensure that basic sciences, technique, philosophy and business management courses demonstrated to students the relationship between all of these aspects to actual clinical/patient care.

            Our first step was to divide our curriculum into years (Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3) rather than areas such as Technique, Business & Practice Management, Clinic, etc. This type of curriculum allows faculty groups in each year to compare syllabi and teaching methods so that the result is a more integrated curriculum in each year. And we have added philosophy, personal and practice ethics, business management and clinic observation courses early on in the students’ course of study. The response from students has been overwhelmingly positive, and the faculty and administration are adjusting to the changes. This is an ongoing process that won’t be easy, but the end result will be better-educated students who are prepared to be successful in practice and leaders of the chiropractic profession.

            Our next step is to begin Clinic on day one and teach every course in conjunction with that clinical experience. We will initiate this at our Florida campus in October 2002.

 

Campus Improvements and Leadership Accomplishments

            Be assured that Palmer will never rest on its laurels. Designing a new, integrated curriculum is only one of the major projects we’ve undertaken. To update you on our progress, following is a list of significant accomplishments within the last few years that illustrate our leadership intentions in this profession.

 

            • Completion of a $13 million campus improvement program, including state-of-the-art classrooms with sophisticated computer, Internet and satellite communications capabilities, new green space and student living areas such as courtyards and quiet study areas, renovated classrooms and faculty offices.

            • Graduating the first class of 25 chiropractors from Feevale University, our groundbreaking partnership with ASPEUR Feevale to deliver high-quality chiropractic education in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, which is the first Chiropractic program in South America.

            • Working with city officials and other state officials in Florida to establish a chiropractic college in Port Orange, Fla.

            • Receiving Federal grant funds totaling $3 million to build a new library and learning resource center and to expand the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research facility, which is already the largest Chiropractic research center in the world.

            • Developing a proactive, dynamic continuing education program through the Palmer Institute for Professional Advancement, which provides materials and seminars, including practice management, to chiropractors through traditional programs and via the Internet.

            • An emphasis on student recruitment that has resulted in Palmer’s being the only Chiropractic college to experience a significant increase in enrollment in the last year.

            • Working toward an integrated curriculum and streamlining administrative processes to bring the Palmer and Palmer West campuses closer together.

            • Embarking upon a $25 million capital campaign to raise significant new funds and increase the college’s endowment, plus build a state-of-the-art library and learning resource center.

            • Making progress in student services areas such as providing a student daycare facility and improving study spaces and technology in the David D. Palmer Health Sciences Library.

            • Restoration of historical areas on campus such as Little Bit O’ Heaven.

 

            The above is really just a list of highlights. Every day I work with dedicated, bright, hard-working faculty, administrators and staff who are as committed as I am to the mission of Palmer Chiropractic and to our leadership role. Our accomplishments are written in the faces of our students who are on fire for Chiropractic. I truly love coming to work each day and I can’t wait to see what the future holds. If you feel as we do about the future of Chiropractic, please contact my office or our alumni office at 1-800-PCC-ALUM to find out how you can participate with us. Or better yet, come to Palmer Lyceum in California this May or join more than 3,000 people in Davenport this August and see what we’re so excited about. The passion and excitement here about a bright future for our profession is contagious. Pass it on!

 

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            1. The Palmer Chiropractic University System embraces the philosophy that life is intelligent; the human body possesses inherent potential to maintain itself in a natural state of homeostasis through its innate/inborn intelligence.

 

            2. The Palmer Chiropractic University System maintains that the science of chiropractic emphasizes the relationship between structure, primarily of the spinal column and the nervous system, and how that relationship affects function and health. Implicit within this statement is the significance of the nervous system to health and the effect of the subluxation complex upon the nervous system and, therefore, the body.