Accreditation standards and Policy 56 info relating to a Life West education
Life Chiropractic College West offers programs and services that are designed not only to provide opportunities for educational advancement but also to apply what is learned.
To this end, and following the guidelines set forth by our accreditation, students will demonstrate mastery of the Student Learning Outcomes and will think critically and practically, commit to success, and engage themselves as active members of the chiropractic profession.
Assessment and diagnosis require developed clinical reasoning skills. Clinical reasoning consists of data gathering and interpretation; hypothesis generation and testing; and critical evaluation of diagnostic strategies.
This dynamic process includes the collection and assessment of data through history,
physical examination, imaging, laboratory tests, and case-related clinical services.
The program prepares students to:
Students will be able to:
Management involves the development, implementation and monitoring of a patient care plan for positively impacting a patient’s health and well-being, including specific healthcare goals and prognoses. It may include case follow-up, referral, and/or collaborative care.
The program prepares students to:
Students will be able to:
Effective communication includes oral, written, and nonverbal skills with appropriate sensitivity, clarity and control for a wide range of healthcare-related activities, to include patient care, professional communication, health education, record keeping, and reporting.
The program prepares students to:
A. communicate effectively, accurately, and appropriately with patients and other health care professionals.
B. create and maintain accurate, appropriate, and legible records.
C. comply with regulatory standards and responsibilities for patient and business records.
Students will be able to:
1) document health risks and management options considering the patient’s health care needs and
goals.
2) exhibit verbal and non-verbal communication skills supportive of patient-centered care.
3) safeguard and keep confidential the patient’s protected health and financial information.
4) generate patient records, narrative reports, and correspondence that comply with state and federal laws and regulations and applicable/accepted industry standards.
Professionals are expected to comply with the law and exhibit ethical behavior.
The program prepares students to:
A. apply knowledge of ethical principles and boundaries.
B. apply knowledge of applicable health care laws and regulations.
C. apply knowledge of expected professional conduct.
Students will be able to:
1) maintain appropriate boundaries with patients, including physical, communication (verbal and non-verbal), and emotional.
2) maintain professional conduct with patients, peers, staff, and faculty.
3) comply with the ethical and legal dimensions of clinical practice.
Cultural competency includes the knowledge, skills, and core professional attributes needed to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors, including the tailoring of health care delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs in an effort to reduce disparities in healthcare delivery.
The program prepares students to:
A. demonstrate an awareness of biases and social determinants of health that may impact the delivery of care to a diverse population.
B. evaluate the role of sociocultural, socioeconomic, and diversity factors in contemporary society to meet the healthcare needs of persons, groups, and populations.
Students will be able to:
1) communicate respectfully and effectively with patients of diverse social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in a manner that protects the dignity of individuals and communities.
2) design a care plan that considers and respects the culture of the patient.
Doctors of chiropractic employ the adjustment/manipulation to address joint and neurophysiologic dysfunction. The adjustment/manipulation is a precise procedure requiring the discrimination and identification of dysfunction; interpretation and application of clinical knowledge; and the use of cognitive and psychomotor skills.
The program prepares students to:
A. assess normal and abnormal structural, neurological, and functional articular relationships.
B. evaluate the clinical indications and rationale for selecting a particular chiropractic
adjustment/manipulation.
C. determine, based on clinical indications and risk factors, the appropriateness of delivering chiropractic adjustment/manipulation.
D. demonstrate the knowledge, mechanical principles, and psychomotor skills necessary to safely perform chiropractic adjustment/manipulation.
E. assess the patient outcome(s) of the chiropractic adjustment/manipulation.
Students will be able to:
1) identify subluxations/segmental dysfunction of the spine and/or other articulations.
2) analyze and interpret findings indicating the need for chiropractic adjustment/manipulation.
3) identify indications, contraindications, and risk factors for the chiropractic adjustment/manipulation
and explain the anticipated benefits, potential complications, and effects to patients.
4) apply chiropractic adjustment/manipulation to patients while ensuring patient safety.
5) identify the effects following the chiropractic adjustment/manipulation.
Students have the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to function as part of an inter-professional team to provide patient-centered collaborative care. Inter-professional teamwork may be demonstrated in didactic, clinical, or simulated learning environments.
The program prepares students to:
A. work with other health professionals to maintain a climate of mutual respect and shared values, placing the interests of patients at the center of inter-professional health care delivery.
B. identify different models of inter-professional care, organizational, and administrative structures and the decision-making processes that accompany them.
C. explain the roles and responsibilities of each member of the health care team.
D. collaborate with health team members to clarify each member’s responsibility in executing components of a management plan or public health intervention.
Students will be able to:
1) communicate information with health team members in a manner that is understandable, avoiding discipline-specific terminology when possible.
2) apply collaborative strategies with members of the healthcare team to support a team approach to patient-centered care
This link to the CCE Policy 56 presents the completion rates of Life West students for the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) licensing examinations and the DC program. Page one provides the numbers and percentages of Life West graduates who completed all four parts of the NBCE licensure examinations within 6 months of graduation for the two most recent calendar years. Page two provides the rates of completing the DC program within 150% of the standard duration for the two most recent years.
This link to the Time-to-Complete chart opens a bar graph of the number of completers of the DC program at Life West relative to the number of quarters they required to complete. The total number of quarters includes all quarters that they were not enrolled in the program, which includes quarters withdrawn for personal and/or academic reasons. Transfer students who did complete their DC degrees at Life West are not included in this bar graph.
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