Chiropractor
Chiropractors manipulate joints, bones and soft tissue to help clients control pain or prevent injuries from re-occurring.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
As a chiropractor you could:
- talk to clients about their symptoms, make sure their condition is suitable for treatment and design a treatment programme
- treat back, leg, neck and shoulder pain
- help clients with sports injuries, poor posture or joint and muscle pain
- carry out examinations like X-rays or blood tests
- give advice on lifestyle, diet and exercise to support recovery
Working environment
You could work in a therapy clinic.
Career path and progression
Most chiropractors are self employed.
With experience you could:
- set up your own practice
- move into education or research
- specialise in an area like sports medicine, rehabilitation or neurology
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- sensitivity and understanding
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- customer service skills
- knowledge of how the human body works
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to work well with others
- excellent verbal communication skills
- thinking and reasoning skills
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
Restrictions and Requirements
You'll need to:
How to become
You can get into this job through a university course.
You'll need to do a degree or postgraduate master's course recognised by the General Chiropractic Council.
This involves 3 years of full time study and 1 year working under supervision.
You might be able to take an Access to Science course if you do not have the degree entry requirements.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English, maths and science
- 3 A levels or equivalent
More Information
You'll need to get paid or voluntary experience of working with a chiropractor before applying for a course.
You'll also find it useful to get experience of working in healthcare.
Registration
- you'll need to be registered with the General Chiropractic Council before you can work as a chiropractor
Further information
You can find out more about becoming a chiropractor from the General Chiropractic Council and the British Chiropractic Association.
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External links
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.