The University of Pittsburgh Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) program is designed to offer students a clinically robust education that sets it apart from traditional chiropractic programs. This intention to bring students into early real-world clinical experiences is cited by current and incoming students as a primary draw to the program.
Beginning as early as their first week in the program, students are immersed in the clinical experience, which continues throughout the first semester with visits to a range of private practice chiropractic clinics and hospital environments. These initial observational experiences contribute to building strong foundational skills as the students experience the importance of diverse health care environments and working in an interdisciplinary health care team environment.
Hear what our Doctor of Chiropractic students have to say about their first year of clinical experiences!
Steven Samuelson (DC ’28)
“The clinical experiences were one of the one of the big reasons why I chose Pitt, and it’s been really awesome what we’ve been able to do in just our first two semesters. In our first three weeks, I was able to shadow in a private chiropractic practice, go on an ambulance ride, do a shift in the ER and experience a couple of multidisciplinary practices where I was able to see chiropractors, physical therapists and medical doctors all working together as a team, which was a really great opportunity.”
Mark Sullivan (DC ’28)
“We do a lot of clinicals starting from week one. We’ve done emergency medicine in the emergency room, gone on ambulance rides and seen chiropractors around the area. We worked within the VA and UPMC hospitals, and I know other students have been to Magee Hospital working in women’s health. There’s a lot out there, and it’s great to see from so many different perspectives. These experiences help to have empathy with patients by seeing what they’re going through with other professions.
The reason that we did a clinical experience in emergency medicine is to really see the patient-doctor relationship, how they interact with each other, how there’s fast decision making with those physicians and how they work through their own cases. Chiropractors aren’t directly related to the emergency rooms that I know of, but just seeing the experience of the ER environment really helps out.”
Alyssa Reyes (DC ’28)
“Of all the experiences so far, I really enjoyed the ambulance ride. I don’t think I fully comprehended the difference between a paramedic and an EMT and how they work together and what you need to do on different calls. So that was really exciting and looking at all of their equipment and definitely taking a couple runs with patients. It’s been really exciting.”
Dylan Mayer (DC ’28)
“In the Pitt DC program, we get the opportunity to shadow all over in different realms of health care. We’ve had an ambulance ride-along and worked in the ER, so it gives us a better scope of other patients, not that we’ll be treating them, but coming from other disciplines of medicine and being able to work in a professional manner with the other clinicians there.”
Matt Boyle (DC ’28)
“The clinical experience portion of the Pitt DC program is something that really drove me when I was first applying. In our first semester, we had experiences in an ambulance ride-along setting, we had experiences in a medical primary care setting in addition to an emergency department. And I think that is really unique. Compared to other chiropractic schools, Pitt offers a more holistic and intensive group of clinical experiences, especially in your first semester. Most schools will wait until you’re further along in the curriculum. I think it made a real difference in my understanding of what it means to be a chiropractor in an integrated setting, and I would not trade those experiences for the world. They were so formative in my understanding of what it means to be a chiropractic student and eventual clinician.”
Taylor Nabb (DC ’28)
“The clinical experiences have been great. We got to go to so many different places last semester, which is another reason why I was so drawn to Pitt, knowing that we would get clinical experience observing in that first semester. We’ve been to the emergency department, we’ve been on ambulance ride-alongs, we’ve been to family practices, chiropractic practices, integrated practices. We’ve really gotten a nice overview of all different types of health care.
At first, I was not quite sure about why we would be going on some of these clinical experiences. And after the fact, it was so helpful to do our reflections and just see the way that they tie back to chiropractic care and see our role as chiropractors in integrated health care.
They’ve been fantastic, and they’ve given me a new perspective on health care as a whole and just got me so excited about what we’re going to be doing.”
Aneisa Boyd (DC ’28)
“For my clinical experiences, we’ve gotten to be in the emergency department, chiropractic practices, PT practices and ride-alongs with EMTs. They’ve all been so great, and I’ve learned a lot through meeting each of these different health professionals. The whole goal is to be able to work with them in the future, so understanding the process and the day-to-day that they go through and what it means for them in their profession, will be helpful for whenever I’m referring a patient in the future. I now understand what their roles are, so I know where I can fill in and where I can’t. I think it’s really important in this profession to understand what their experiences will be in each of these settings.”
Jules Ryan (DC ’28)
“Clinicals have been amazing and the opportunities that we’ve had have been so new to the chiropractic realm. Other institutions typically wait until the last couple of semesters to put you in a clinical setting and we got to go into clinic the third day of class. We’ve been on ambulance ride-alongs and have been in hospital ERs with other chiropractors in the area. Seeing those different interdisciplinary routines and other practitioners out there and the different steps that you can refer out to, or what patients may be going through before or after they come to you, has been very eye-opening and you get a sense of how other professions work.”
Related Stories
Student Perspectives: What Pitt Chiropractic Students Wish They Knew Before Starting the Program
Hear from current Pitt Chiropractic students to learn what they wish they knew before starting the program.
Read the full story