Volume 34: Issue 1

Qualifying examinations are important in defining healthcare occupations as professions. Although the chiropractic profession has a long history of developing and improving its qualifying examinations, this information has not been well documented in the peer-reviewed literature and publicly available documents. The public expects to see evidence that a professional group uses best practices when examining candidates for licensure to ensure safe and effective care. However, the void in our literature makes it difficult to find evidence of an ongoing commitment to improve the quality and best practices of our board examinations. Therefore, this issue is dedicated to papers that explain the preparation and administration of qualifying exams and how these data inform program evaluation. This theme issue reveals that chiropractic educators are engaged in ongoing quality enhancement of the tests that signify to society that licensure candidates have been appropriately examined on the specialized knowledge and skills necessary to serve as doctors of chiropractic. These articles show that chiropractic strives to uphold its commitment as a professional body and is worthy of receiving the trust that the public has bestowed upon us.

Objective:

We compared first-year cumulative grade point average and a composite score on part I of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) exam for first-year alternative admission track program (AATP) students who did and did not take three specific undergraduate courses: general chemistry, organic chemistry, and anatomy and physiology.

Methods:

All AATP students in 2015 (n = 50) were evaluated for the course history of general chemistry and anatomy and physiology compared to their first-year cumulative grade point average and NBCE part 1 scores using independent t-tests.

Results:

Students in the AATP who took general chemistry tended to score higher overall on the NBCE exams (p = .038, r = .229). Organic chemistry and anatomy and physiology had no statistical effect on improving board scores. First-year cumulative grade point average seemed to be unaffected by any of the undergraduate courses evaluated.

Conclusion:

There was a statistically significant difference in composite NBCE part 1 score between AATP students who had and had not taken general chemistry 1 before admission. There were no differences in first-year GPA between AATP students who had and had not taken undergraduate chemistry and A&P courses.

Objective:

In 2012, the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) enacted new admission standards with related provisions under a new Policy 7, the Alternative Admissions Track Plan (AATP). The current study examined the relationships between typically admitted students and their AATP counterparts on three student success outcome measures: Graduation at the 150th percentile time frame, National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) Part I pass rates, and completion of all four NBCE examinations within 6-months after graduation.

Methods:

The authors used three random samples (n = 1050) drawn from a relational database, containing program outcome variables and student characteristics. Assessment of the outcome measures occurred using Pearson χ² test of independence and the Φ coefficient effect size measure.

Results:

Significant relationships with small effect sizes and weak associations were found between AATP status and graduation at the 150th percentile (p < .01, Φ = .118) and NBCE Part I pass rates (p < .01, Φ = .114). No significant association between AATP status and NBCE Completion rates 6-months after graduation (p = .144, Φ = .045) was found.

Conclusion:

The weak associations between variables indicate that AATP status did not meaningfully relate to the outcome variables. There likely are other subtle characteristics and attributes that influence successful completion of key programmatic outcomes. The weak associations found in the current study suggest that when governed under the same academic policies with equal access to support resources, there does not appear to be a meaningful association between the programmatic success of AATP and non-AATP students on key outcomes.

The conference organizers wish to thank the many reviewers for their wonderful and necessary service. Their work makes the program successful and we are quite grateful.

Medhat Alattar, Robert Appleyard, Iben Axén, Barclay Bakkum, Angela Ballew, Deborah Barr, Patrick Battaglia, Judy Bhatti, Charles Blum, Karen Bobak, Ron Boesch, Christopher Borgerdin, Linda Bowers, Rick Branson, Joseph Brimhall, Renee Broughten, Paul Bruno, Kara Burnham, Alana Callender, Jerrilyn Cambron, Marni Capes, Beth Carleo, Jonathan Carlos, Cynthia Chapman, Chin-Suk (John) Cho, Ngai Chow, Jesse Coats, Stephan Cooper, Elaine Cooperstein, Robert Cooperstein, Matthew Cote, Brian Cunningham, Stuart Currie, Vincent DeBono, Martin Descarreaux, Scott Donaldson, Paul

PLATFORM PRESENTATIONS

A systematic review of complementary and integrative health interventions for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and comorbid mental health conditions

Danielle Aslan, Jason Napuli, Sheryl Walters

Objective: To evaluate the use of complementary and integrative health (CIH) interventions compared to usual care for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and co-occurring mental health conditions. Data Sources and Selection: PubMed, CINAHL, PsychARTICLES, ICL, and AMED were searched for randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies describing patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and treatments consisting of CIH approaches compared with usual care. Two reviewers independently screened abstracts and/or full-text for inclusion,

Small Teaching Online

Carissa ManriquePhD,

Abdellatif AlsharifPhD,

Kelly BrownMS,

Cynthia CalongneDCS,

Terence CockerhamMA, and

Themba NgwenyaDCS