While there are many things that you have to learn to graduate and become a certified chiropractor, many other skills are an essential part of the job. Below, we’ll highlight some skills every chiropractor needs to develop in their careers.
Dexterity
Working with your hands is a critical part of the job as a chiropractor, so good finger dexterity and flexibility are vital in the trade. Having good coordination is the key to performing the basic manual adjustments to a patient’s spine.
Through school and experience with patients, chiropractors can improve their dexterity. Consider incorporating simple dexterity exercises into your daily routine to warm up your hands and keep your skills sharp.
Pro-Tip
Many hobbies also improve finger dexterity, like origami or playing an instrument.
Communication Skills
Communication is one of the most basic but important parts of the job for chiropractors. A chiropractor must learn how to listen to patients and explain procedures and treatment options in a clear, easy-to-understand way.
Often, a patient may have pain or ailment but isn’t sure how to describe it, and a chiropractor has to coax the problem out of the patient by listening and asking questions. Plus, learning how to communicate with patients clearly helps to put them at ease before and during procedures.
Interpersonal Skills
Along with communication, every chiropractor needs to learn the skill of interacting and being personable with their patients. Some clients may have trepidations about seeing a chiropractor or feel nervous about spinal manipulations, so chiropractors need to relate to strangers and put their minds at ease quickly.
And at one point or another, there’ll be problems, so chiropractors need to learn how to deal with unhappy clients. While there are some strategies for learning and developing these skills, most will come from experience, so while new chiropractors may not be as developed, they’ll learn.
Organizational Skills
Outside of interacting with patients and spinal manipulations, it’s always wise for chiropractors to develop their business senses and organizational skills. While chiropractors should hone their treatment skills first, the end goal for many is own and operate their practice, which is like running a small business.
To run a small business, the owner must have proper organizational skills to manage everything from clients to employees to accounting. For chiropractors who want to run their own practice, taking some business classes or apprenticing for other chiropractors would help them learn the ins and outs of organizing a practice.
