Exploring the level of inter professional engagement within a chiropractic program

Background: Part of chiropractic education involves a requirement for clinical education. Traditionally the clinical education for chiropractors has been profession specific, with little inter professional engagement. There exists paucity in the literature on the amount of inter professional clinical engagements in chiropractic programs. Objective: To explore the perception of final year students from an American Chiropractic college regarding their level and understanding of inter professional engagement. Methods: A qualitative exploratory descriptive design was used for this research. Students were invited to participate. Semi structured focus group interviews were conducted with 15 students lasting 60 minutes. Thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews were undertaken. Results: Students expressed a strong desire for inter professional education as a component of their clinical education. Many described a low level of inter professional exposure within their clinical educational experience. Perceived obstacles to inter professional engagement were lack of knowledge about other health professions, exposure to other professions and lack of formal inter professional educational engagement. Conclusion: Despite the evidence in the literature in support of interprofessional education, in practice it was evident from this study that there is need for more work in implementation. Increased exposure within the clinical program, as well as higher levels of interprofessional engagement would further enhance the student understanding and confidence for future engagement.