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ICA BOARD CALLS FOR PROFESSION-WIDE DIALOGUE ON CHIROPRACTIC EDUCATION AND ACCREDITATION
The Board of Directors of the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) has issued a call for a serious profession wide dialogue on the challenges and needs of chiropractic education, in light of the current intense controversy surrounding the educational accreditation process. During their Mid-Year Board meeting on February 25, 2003, the ICA Board adopted a statement that expressed concern over the state of chiropractic accreditation and called for a national dialogue on how this process might be improved. This resolution is meant to voice the concerns of the many thousands of individual doctors of chiropractic and the dozens of chiropractic organizations that have contacted the ICA regarding the nature and direction of the operations of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE). The statement reads as follows:
The International Chiropractors Association is gravely concerned over the damage done to the chiropractic profession and the chiropractic educational system in recent months by the actions of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE). All responsible parties should be concerned over the maintenance of the credibility, integrity and the restoration of the previously established consensus position the chiropractic accrediting agency has developed over a period of decades. ICA also recognizes the inherent dangers of having a single unchecked accrediting agency with regard to the conservative approach of traditional chiropractic education. The ICA Board of Directors therefore calls for an immediate profession-wide dialogue, including a national consensus conference, to explore all possible means of restoring the urgently needed balance and fairness in the chiropractic educational accreditation process. We therefore offer to facilitate, support and participate in a broad-based conference through which these issues can be discussed and a proactive course of action determined.
"This is a step that is long overdue," said ICA Board Chair Dr. Robert Braile. "It is essential that the accreditation process move in a responsible direction and even more important that this process be unquestionably fair, provide for the wide divergence of philosophies we have in chiropractic and that it reflect the practice realities and legal parameters we have in chiropractic today."
ICA intends to seek the broadest possible participation in a dialogue that will involve a major re-evaluation of the chiropractic accreditation process. It is hoped that this dialogue might be undertaken with the help of professional consultants and include a full legal review of chiropractic definitions and authorities under state law, and a careful examination of the methodologies and procedures applied by other health professions in evaluating and accrediting their educational institutions. "The accreditation process should be one through which clear standards are objectively applied, according to the realities of chiropractic as it is, and not used by some to push the chiropractic profession in a medical direction, especially when the majority of the profession is so strongly committed to the maintenance of chiropractic as a separate and distinct science art and philosophy," Dr. Braile added.
ICA invites all interested organizations to consider how the chiropractic profession can come together in a meaningful, positive dialogue to provide for an accreditation system that is responsive to all, prejudicial to none and focused on the unique nature of chiropractic science, art, philosophy and practice. ICA has asked the advice and participation of a number of educational authorities and will seek the participation of representatives of the U.S. Department of Education. ICA also believes it is in the chiropractic profession's best interests to explore all options in an effort to build the strongest possible foundation for chiropractic education. ICA's Board of Directors has made it clear that this is not an undertaking the ICA intends to do on its own. ICA is simply looking to start this urgent process, and is hoping for the broadest possible participation. ICA is now working with a growing coalition of chiropractic organizations and hopes that this concept will soon be officially embraced and have the active support of those key groups.
At a time when the total student enrollment in chiropractic college is significantly down, ICA also hopes that such a dialogue might encourage more qualified candidates to choose a chiropractic career.
For More Information, Contact the International Chiropractors Association, a Worldwide Community of the Most Successful Chiropractors on Earth at chiro@chiropractic.org or visit the ICA website at www.chiropractic.org.
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