Chiropractic Assistant Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a chiropractic assistant. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a chiropractic assistant.
Who is a Chiropractic Assistant?
A Chiropractic assistant is a licensed healthcare professional who works at the chiropractic office and assists chiropractors to perform different kinds of duties and responsibilities. They schedule appointments, do medical billing and code insurance claims, check-in patients, answer calls and respond to inquiries from patients and perform any other duty chiropractors may ask them to do. They may also perform other administrative functions such as collation of past receipts, and pass out educational modules to give out treatment guidelines per chiropractor.
Chiropractic assistants do not receive the same training as chiropractic, they are mainly involved in everything about a patient’s care, from initial evaluation through treatment and rehabilitation. The responsibilities they perform are checking the detailed medical history of the patient, providing treatments such as massage and spinal adjustment, administering diagnostic tests, and assisting with other procedures such as X-rays or ultrasound.
Chiropractic assistants also spend a large portion of their day carrying out computer work and other office responsibilities. They regularly update their company’s social media handle to update patients about the latest development in the practice. They also perform administrative responsibilities in the medical field.
Chiropractic assistants usually know medical practice and they learn basic medical terminologies. They also learn how insurance billing and payment process to accomplish these responsibilities. They also perform other minor duties such as tidying the waiting room, laundering patient gowns, minor cleaning tasks,t asks sanitizing work surfaces.
Every chiropractic assistant serves as a link between the patient and the chiropractic practitioner. Some also serve as a liaison between insurance companies and chiropractors. They also go as far as bridging the gap between chiropractors and state licensing boards, and computer and software tech with other entities. Customer service is highly paramount in an organization to retain patients, as an experienced chiropractic assistant may be saddled with the responsibility to train newly recruited chiropractic assistants and other members of staff.
The work environment of chiropractic is an office setting where they play a role that is similar to that of a receptionist. They usually work for 40 hours per week, although they can also work part-time. If the schedule of the patient and doctor is tight, they may be summoned to work on weekends. Chiropractic should be able to endure standing for long hours, so they must be physically fit and strong.
Chiropractic Assistant Job Description
Below are the chiropractic assistant job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a chiropractic assistant job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The following are the duties and responsibilities of a chiropractic assistant:
- Welcomes and check-in clients
- Takes X-rays of patients when necessary, by adhering to established protocols for safety
- Performs massage therapy on patients to speed up their recovery process from musculoskeletal issues and neck pain
- Collects information on patient health history, including a family history of the disease, previous injuries, current medications or supplements being taken, and allergies
- Takes down notes during patient examination and updates the patient’s record with the details about the visit
- Maintains the inventory of supplies such as x-rays films, bandages, and braces
- Provides information about diverse treatment options available at a chiropractic officer, including the risks associated with the treatment and the benefits as well
- Assists chiropractors during treatment sessions by preparing treatment areas, providing administrative support during office hours, taking notes during the examination, and preparing treatment areas and equipment.
- Conducts a preparatory screening of patients to ascertain their sustainability for chiropractic care; this assessment can be blood pressure tests as needed
- Ensures that the waiting room is kept clean
- Distributes educational guidelines to patients as instructed by the chiropractor
- Maintains organized files on patients
- Responds to email correspondence
- Answers and addresses all patient’s inquiries and concerns
- Calls in prescriptions to appropriate pharmacies under the chiropractor’s direction
- Collects and processes insurance billing information, including filing claims and following up with patients regarding treatment arrangements
Qualifications
- A high school diploma or equivalent
- Must be trained under a licensed professional chiropractic
- Familiarity with computers and other spreadsheets such as Microsoft Office and Excel
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Strong interpersonal and organizational skills
- Ability to multi-task
- At least 2 years of proven administrative experience preferably in the healthcare setting
- Must be independent and willing to work under minimal supervision the majority of the time
- Interpersonal skills
- Ability to lift more than 20 pounds
Essential Skills
- Communication Skills: this is highly essential because assistant chiropractic serves as a link to chiropractic, insurance companies, clients, and other entities. Communication skills will help chiropractic assistants pass a message across to clients, for instance, they are responsible for interpreting the medical process of a healthcare system to clients. They also communicate to clients via social media, emails, and calls. These communication skills will help the assistant chiropractic to answer the client’s questions and inquiries. You will need to be able to listen and understand the needs of patients and doctors as well as pass across information to them in a vivid manner.
- Attention to Detail: Chiropractic assistants must be much more focused because mistakes can spell doom for their careers. This is also because they are responsible for documenting patients’ information, checking patients’ past medical history and family history, entering data into a computer, or filling out paperwork. They are also responsible for storing patients’ information in databases. They need to be much more focused when discharging their duties to have steady career growth.
- Flexibility and Multi-tasking: An chiropractic assistant job requires them to have a flexible work schedule because they can be called at any time to perform a responsibility. They must be ready at all times to answer the duty call. They can even be summoned to work late the during weekends.
In addition, they should be able to multi-task, a chiropractic assistant may be required to perform diverse responsibilities such as training newly recruited assistant chiropractic, performing a range of administrative duties, and sometimes standing in for chiropractors in their absence.
- Empathy: this is seen as the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. As a chiropractic assistant, empathy can make you feel compassion when you see a patient in a condition and it will stimulate you to perform your responsibility as expected. For instance, if you schedule an appointment between a patient and the chiropractic and there is a nostalgic feeling on the part of the patient; you can use your empathy skills to encourage the patient.
- Organization: a chiropractic assistant must be very organized to catalog patients’ files and also meet up to established deadlines. This includes always keeping the treatment room clean, keeping a track record of patients’ files, and insurance information, and keeping track of all supplies the chiropractor needs.
How to Become a Chiropractic Assistant
An individual considering becoming a chiropractic assistant must follow the steps highlighted below;
- Acquire an Education
The minimum qualification to become a chiropractic assistant is a high school diploma but you can proceed to acquire a bachelor’s degree to increase your chances of getting the job. You can acquire a bachelor’s degree in courses such as anatomy, physiology, biology, chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, and physics. The most common visible traits of chiropractic assistants are physical therapy and kinesiology. When undergoing your undergraduate degree; focus on the medical field because that’s what you want to practice after graduation.
- Gain relevant Training and Experience
Most employers prefer a chiropractic assistant with experience in the health setting and it is very paramount for chiropractic assistants to acquire such experience. This experience can be acquired in a medical or clinical setting, such as a hospital or physician setting. They can also earn this experience by performing administrative duties to chiropractors. They can be employed as medical assistants or medical secretaries.
Some chiropractic assistant programs offer six months programs to groom students for the position of chiropractic assistant. These programs typically have the duration of six to twelve months and it includes medical training in a clinical setting.
- Earn Certification
Although an individual does not need a certification before he or she becomes a chiropractic assistant but certifications will boost your chances in the job market because some employers will not hire a candidate without certification. There are bodies such as The Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards (FCLB) and the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) that offer a certified chiropractic clinical assistant program. Candidates can apply online through the FCLB website.
Those that meet the FCLB requirement receive the certification at the end of the day and it is known as the designation of certified clinical chiropractic assistant or “Triple CA” as it is fondly called in the chiropractic sector. This reputable qualification can distinguish you in your career as a chiropractic assistant because it is a highly-acclaim certificate for chiropractic assistants.
Candidates are mandated to pass an online assessment examination for the certification. After they pass the exam, they must pass through 300 hours of supervised clinical experience. Clinical assistants are expected to renew their certification or license every two years to acquire more promotions and steady career growth.
Different states have their requirements and terminology for chiropractic assistants and you need to be conscious of that. For instance in Florida, registered chiropractic assistants perform administrative responsibilities under the supervision of a licensed chiropractor.
Certified chiropractic assistants have their boundaries even though they are trained for two years; they can complete certain tasks done by chiropractors but they are not allowed to perform some duties such as treating patients and giving them medical advice. They need to also be certified in CPR and first aid in case of any emergency. They should also have foreknowledge of risk associated with the profession and be comfortable with the basics of emergency treatment.
- Licensing
In some states chiropractic is required to be licensed, by the state board, the state board of chiropractic requires that and executes the candidate’s licensing. There are some states such as Maryland where licensing is required.
- Apply for Jobs
Prepare the resume as a chiropractic assistant and include your details such as contact details, academic qualifications, and essential skills. Focus on medical and administrative skills to impress the potential employer. Apply for open positions available in your locality or hospitals where you did your job training.
- Keep Abreast with the Trend In the Industry of Chiropractic
One of the cure trends they must keep abreast with is more focus on preventive care. Preventive care is gaining prominence day by day as possible are conscious that it is better to detect the early treatment of disease than when it is full-blown into maturity. This trend has a tremendous impact on the chiropractic industry and it has stirred up chiropractors to work more hard.
Chiropractic assistants can take advantage of this trend by becoming experts in preventive care services. The services they can offer are: educating parents about the advantages of regular checkups, providing other essential support, and helping them schedule an appointment.
They should also maximize the use of technology in their profession as chiropractic assistants. They can capitalize on this trend by utilizing technology to do their work. This includes learning how to use spreadsheets and software such as patient portals, billing systems, and electronic health records. They should also utilize social media and other marketing and advertising services to educate people about preventive treatment and also to encourage people to patronize their services.
Patient education is also another trend chiropractic assistants need to keep abreast with. They should educate patients about healthcare options they can adopt. This trend is very important in the field of chiropractic assistants because patients are always looking for alternative treatments that are better than traditional medicine. They should be ready at all times to provide patients with the information they need so that patients can make a decision.
Where can a Chiropractic Assistant Work?
Chiropractic assistant primarily works in the health sector assisting chiropractors and they can work in the following:
- Clinics
- Hospitals
- Businesses
- Health-care centers
Chiropractic Assistant Salary
- In the United States, the salary of a chiropractic assistant is $29,828 per year and $14.34 per hour. This salary depends on the level of experience and location of the chiropractic assistant
- The average salary of a chiropractic assistant in the United Kingdom is 22,514 pounds per year which is equivalent to 1,876 pounds per month.