The document discusses interviews conducted with former chiropractic students. It found that while the students enjoyed helping people as chiropractors, they struggled to open and maintain successful private practices after graduation. This was partly due to the schools not adequately preparing them for the business and financial challenges of starting a practice. The students felt misled by their schools and that more transparency around the difficulties of establishing a private practice was needed to manage expectations.

1. Laura Bissmeyer

2. Possible variants
Current undergrad students
◦ Freshman – Senior
Current grad students
◦ MS - Phd
Former students with jobs/without jobs
◦ Grad/undergrad
 1-3 yrs
 3-5 yr
 5 and up yr

3. Possible variants
Current undergrad students
◦ Freshman – Senior
Current grad students
◦ MS - Phd
Former students with jobs/without jobs in
their field of study
◦ Grad/undergrad
 1-3 yrs
 3-5 yr
 5 and up yr

4. 1. Where did you go to school?
2. What are you doing now?
3. How does what you are doing now align to the vision
of what you had as you approached graduation?
Why?
4. Why are you doing _____ now?
5. Why aren’t you doing _________
6. Would you recommend this field to someone else?
Why? Or why not?
7. What did the school do to help launch you/prepare
you (for your career)?
8. Knowing now what you know about your field of
study what would you recommend the school do?
Why?

5.  2 studied Chiropractic medicine
◦ 1. working a nurse
◦ 2. part-time day care
 1 studied political study
◦ Working as a house painter
 1 studied social work
◦ Contracting with corporation as a process analyst
After interviews decided to focus on Chiropractors –
primarily because this is a major field of study with
significant money and time commitment not to be
working in the field following graduation….

7. I liked my school
When I graduated I
thought I would
successfully open my
own practice
seminars on how to start a business but it wasn’t
close to helpful once I got out and was trying to
actually open a practice
It wasn’t easy to find a location
It (the practice) was
building too slowly
and I couldn’t afford
to keep it open
After all the $$ I spent in school it was
hard to have the money to keep things
going
I have a family
couldn’t
continue to be a
drain ($$)
I wasn’t comfortable asking patients to
come back again once they felt better
The school should have ‘warned’
me about how hard it was going to
be and they should do it the first
year of school before I spend all
the money and time on school
I was meant to be a healer not a
marketer
I love working with
people, helping them
get well

8. No observations – phone interviews

9. The school should share more about how
tough it is to start a practice
That the school ‘lied’ about what they
would be capable of after graduating
Never should have gone to
grad school in this field in the
first place
Not worth the time or money
expectations weren’t met
School just took them for their money
What is wrong with me that I
couldn’t get new clientsIt was totally not worth it
Would never recommend
this path to anyone else
I was duped or taken in

10. Disappointed in business failure
Failure as a healer (their calling) because they
aren’t healing
Angry at the lack of
‘truth’ that the school
didn’t share ‘reality’
Upset for not making the business work
Stupefied that everything school said was tried but still didn’t work

11. Students of Chiropractic medicine
… need a better way to establish a path to a
successful private practice
because… a person graduating from Chiropractic
school is not certain to have the business skills or
finances to ensure success
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