Page 15 - BackSpace October 2017

Newsletter of the European Chiropractors’ Union
General news
Glittering welcome for 20 new Spanish chiropractors
MADRID GAVE a
royal welcome to the
2017 graduates from its own chiropractic college at the Maria Cristina University on 10 June. Nine women and eleven men took the chiropractic oath after celebrating Mass in the stunning royal basilica at El Escorial, which is part of the royal palace that houses the college. The famous
El Escorial boys’ choir gave an added musical dimension to an impressive and moving ceremony. Senior members of the university faculty led a procession of graduates to the assembly rooms where parents and new graduate students were welcomed by the principal, Dr Ricardo Fujikawa, and the president of the ECU, Dr Øystein Ogre.
The principal speaks
Encouraging the new professionals to see qualification as a gateway to immense possibilities and to success in many different forms, Dr Ogre also stressed that qualification brings responsibilities and respect. “As a chiropractor, you have skills that will put you among the best-trained health professionals in the country. You are highly competent to meet the challenges in the clinic, and you will utilise your whole knowledge and skills for the good of the patient. Trust your skills!”
But, he added, respect your patients’ expectations: “You
will find that some patients will be very happy with only small improvements in their health. You will meet the grandfather whose biggest wish is to be able to bend his back so he can play with his grandchild again. You will meet the mother whose biggest wish is that the pain in her arms could ease just a little bit, so she can get enough strength to pick up her baby. And you will meet the little boy whose biggest wish is to get rid of his knee pain so he can play football with the other boys at school again.
‘‘You have probably been told that you are unique. But the only person who truly believes that is your mother. I do not offer you that comfort. The only thing that I can really promise you is that
the world will change and you must keep up as it does so. All professions will change, including ours. You just have to accept that and get used to thinking of it. When you realise this, it will make you stronger, more prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Look backwards to find inspiration and motivation but do not look back in time to find solutions for the challenges of tomorrow. So,
I will ask you, the best educated
of us right now, to think along these lines and help us develop the future of this great profession.”
Ricardo Fujikawa echoed similar thoughts. “‘Today it is Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that spread information for good and bad. Tomorrow the world will have moved on. Knowledge will advance, evidence will be acknowledged and in some cases, proved to be outdated. Artificial Intelligence and robotics will transform health care. Your duty is both to serve patients with
the best the profession can offer and to renew and refresh the profession you have chosen, not to freeze it at a point in time. You are the Millennials and much is said about you, but there is one trait that I keep seeing in your generation. You want to make an impact on the world and I say to you that you will not cause any major impact or promote relevant change in today´s society by just tweeting or posting on Facebook from the comfort of your homes. You promote change and cause an impact in the world by acting. So, be prepared to act!”
Student taking the oath
BCU collaborates again in thesis project at UCLL
THE BELGIAN Chiropractors’ Union has collaborated with the University Center Leuven-Limburg in a thesis project of bachelor students
for the second year in a row. This year’s project was called Investigation into the awareness of chiropractic among GPs: knowledge, attitude, referral behaviour of GPs.
Over 100 GPs with an average age of 39 and
an average 13.8 years in clinical practice, participated in a survey. The general knowledge among the GPs about chiropractic was poor: only 40% were aware of the reimbursement of chiropractic treatment fees and only
20% knew chiropractors
have a master’s degree.
As a consequence of poor knowledge about chiropractic, a significant 44% tend to have a (fairly) negative attitude towards the profession. The main reason for this is the assumption that chiropractic treatment is not evidence- based. The good news is that almost 75% of GPs would
like to have a chiropractor give a presentation about chiropractic in one of their LOK meetings (local groups of GPs who come together once a month.
The statistical analysis of the results also showed that there is a positive correlation between knowledge of chiropractic and referral behaviour. In other words: we need to inform GPs about chiropractic and this will directly result in patient referrals. If they don’t know us, they don’t refer patients.
BACKspace www.chiropractic-ecu.org October 2017 15
© carloseloyfoto
© carloseloyfoto