Young people are always interested in career information, and chiropractic has much to offer them as a career.
Career days at high schools and colleges are among the best possibilities, of course. A talk with local faculty will acquaint you with whether such a day is held annually or whether one can be arranged. Often the faculty will solicit your help in setting up such a day. In this case, you are best off working with a panel of local business people, other health care professionals, bankers, retailers, tailors, service occupations, librarians, almost everyone in your community. Each group can provide a speaker sufficiently informed about a particular field to make a brief address of approximately 15-20 minutes, and each speaker should also be prepared to answer questions for another period about the same length.
A high school or college assembly, or an entire day in the auditorium or gym can be devoted to career day purposes by the school principal. Various groups may arrange booths with posters and exhibits. All groups will want to supply career information in the form of pamphlets, recommend book lists, and article reprints, etc. A school or local librarian can arrange for special displays and subsequent loan-outs about books on career subjects.
You and other guest speakers may leave your business addresses, phone numbers and consultant hours so that you can answer additional questions after the day is conducted.
If you are the prime arranger of such a program, you have an excellent reason to get in touch with local editors and broadcasters about it. If you are one of several or many on such a speech or panel program, you'll want to arrange either personally (or in cooperation with others) for adequate reportorial coverage. You can interest your local newspaper staff in special interviews; you can arrange field trips for students to be covered by newspapers; and you may arrange other publicizable events connected with career day.
School personnel most helpful to you or your group's efforts in setting up career day will be principals and school guidance counselors. In the case of chiropractic careers, you certainly want to include science teachers and health instructors. All should be consulted and their good efforts won for the cause.
High school students are interested in higher education possibilities. Lists of colleges of chiropractic, outlines of educational requirements for being a doctor of chiropractic, data on scholarship aid available, and other such material will be welcomed by the student body. Much of this information can be found in booklets supplied by national professional organizations (International Chiropractors Association and the American Chiropractic Association). Your nearest college of chiropractic will also be of aid in supplying literature, catalogues, scholarship news, application forms, and other suggestions.
An outstanding career-oriented film such as the one produced at the Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa, can also be shown and will cover much of the ground your speech would ordinarily cover. A film of this sort is a good ice-breaker, opening the way for added remarks and questions and informal discussions.
Frequently, articles about chiropractic as a career appear in newspapers and magazines, and such articles may be reprinted or reproduced with publications' permission for mass distribution at nominal cost. Arrangements can be made with a local quick print, and reprints should credit the original publication in a manner suggested by your correspondence with them.
It may also be possible to have your name imprinted on the article as a source for further information about chiropractic careers, or you may wish to attach your business card to each reprint so that the interested students may get in touch with you for more information.
Visits to your practice may also be arranged through cooperation with school officials. Student leaders or interested student groups can accompany you through practice procedures to learn the requirements and the intellectual and professional challenges of the practice. You may also want to take selected students to a chiropractic educational seminar to learn the scope of work encompassed by the chiropractic profession.
Doctor, you may also find the opportunity to promote the profession at nearby colleges of allied health, at nursing schools or at other student centers. In all these cases you will have the opportunity to present chiropractic as a fascinating field of work, so that you can catch the interest of many who are uninformed and hold the interest of those wanting a career in the health field.
It may be worthwhile to circulate a questionnaire among students or neighbors to find out what they know about chiropractic careers. Many people do not realize the time, study or skills involved; do not know the tremendous job range that exists in the chiropractic field; and do not know that enterprise and capital is required to establish a private practice. Your speeches and public information work in this regard will not only attract new students, but will acquaint other citizens with the status and size of the chiropractic field.