Chiropractors

While the career requires three to four years of undergraduate education followed by a four-year Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree program, no on-the-job training or work experience is required to start, although experience in massage or working with patients in a hospital, doctor's office, or home for the elderly can help.

Perhaps the most important personal requirement for any health care professional is the desire to help people and to promote wholeness and health. To be a successful chiropractor, you need good listening skills, empathy, and understanding. As a doctor of chiropractic, you will also need a good business sense and the ability to work independently. Especially sharp observational skills are essential in order for you to recognize physical abnormalities. Good hand dexterity and stability and multilimb coordination are necessary to perform spinal adjustments and other manipulations. While you do not need unusual overall strength, you do need adequate trunk strength, which includes the ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without fatiguing to perform these spinal adjustments and other manipulations.