Revised methodology for the examinations of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners: Impact on institutions, faculty, and students.

For over 50 years, the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) has administered pre-licensure examinations to chiropractic students and graduates. During this time, the testing process has been continually refined and improved, consistent with the evolving science and practices of standardized testing. NBCE test results are provided to chiropractic program leaders who use these data to improve their curricula as part of their own ongoing efforts to refine and improve the academic programs. Finally, the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) requires accredited chiropractic programs to report their NBCE scores to ensure that benchmarks set by the CCE are met. With this symbiotic relationship between the NBCE, CCE, and chiropractic programs (as well as state licensing authorities), it is very important that these groups collaborate and communicate with transparency and diplomacy. In particular, the chiropractic program leaders-and their students as the end users-are vitally interested in monitoring changes at the NBCE and CCE levels that may impact their programs. Recent changes in testing methodology for the NBCE examinations need to be understood and monitored to ensure that they result in their intended outcome, which is greater validity of the testing process. This commentary reflects the views and concerns of 3 chiropractic educational leaders and is intended to facilitate further discussion among chiropractic program leaders toward strengthening the aforementioned symbiotic relationship.

Multiple views to address diversity issues: an initial dialog to advance the chiropractic profession.

The purpose of this article is to provide expert viewpoints on the topic of diversity in the chiropractic profession, including cultural competency, diversity in the profession, educational and clinical practice strategies for addressing diversity, and workforce issues. Over the next decades, changing demographics in North America will alter how the chiropractic profession functions on many levels. As the population increases in diversity, we will need to prepare our workforce to meet the needs of future patients and society.

Research in chiropractic education: an update.

PURPOSE: The objectives of this review were to update the 1997 report on research in chiropractic education from the Research Agenda Conference in 1996 and to provide recommendations for the future direction of this research. METHODS: We conducted a review of the medical and chiropractic literature from March 1997 to March 2005 on the 7 thematic areas identified in the Research Agenda Conference's 1997 article (ie, curriculum, assessment, instructional methods, admissions, faculty development and evaluation, postgraduate and continuing education, and patient centeredness). We searched the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Alt HealthWatch, Index to Chiropractic Literature, MANTIS, and ERIC. We hand searched conference proceedings and relevant journals along with the reference lists of retrieved articles. DISCUSSION: Although research studies in chiropractic education have been conducted on the 7 cited thematic areas, much have focused on instruction, curriculum, assessment, and faculty development. Research studies on areas recommended in the 1997 article, such as patient centeredness and continuing education, are less evident. CONCLUSIONS: Researchers in chiropractic education need to focus their efforts on key areas of importance and interest. They should consider collaborating across the professions with individuals who share the same interest and who have a productive and successful research track record. Individual researchers should be willing to share and acknowledge the work of other colleagues in and across professions. One such area of research that meets these criteria and that which is recommended for consideration is professionalism.