An online survey of chiropractors' opinions of continuing education.

BackgroundContinuing Education (CE) for chiropractors is mandatory for licensure in most North American jurisdictions. Numerous chiropractic colleges have begun collaborating with universities to offer master's degree programs. Distance education master's degree programs may be desirable to allow fu...

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Published in:Chiropractic & Osteopathy Vol. 13; no. 10; pp. 1 - 12
Main Authors: Stuber KJ, Grod JP, Smith DL, Powers P
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: BioMed Central 2005 Oct
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: 2005 Oct
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      pub: BioMed Central
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        atl: An online survey of chiropractors' opinions of continuing education.
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          Stuber KJ
          Grod JP
          Smith DL
          Powers P
        affil: Post-Graduate Faculty, University of Bridgeport Chiropractic College, Bridgeport, CT; kjstuber@hotmail.com
      sug:
        subj:
          Chiropractors Psychosocial Factors
          Education, Continuing Psychosocial Factors
          Descriptive Statistics
          Education, Masters Psychosocial Factors
          Education, Non-Traditional Psychosocial Factors
          Funding Source
          Questionnaires
          Survey Research
          United States
          World Wide Web
          Human
      ab: BackgroundContinuing Education (CE) for chiropractors is mandatory for licensure in most North American jurisdictions. Numerous chiropractic colleges have begun collaborating with universities to offer master's degree programs. Distance education master's degree programs may be desirable to allow full-time practicing doctors to further their post-graduate education. The present survey sought to answer three questions. First, what is the level of satisfaction of chiropractors with their continuing education? Second, what is the level of interest of chiropractors in online master's degree programs? Lastly, what is the response rate of chiropractors to an online survey?MethodsAn online survey consisting of 22 multiple choice questions was e-mailed to 1000 chiropractors randomly selected from the mailing list of an online chiropractic newsletter. Upon completion of the questionnaire, participants' answers were saved on a secure site. Data analysis included evaluation of the demographic characteristics of the respondents, their opinions of and patterns of taking CE including online education, preferred learning formats, and their interest in proposed online master's degree programs. A survey response rate was determined.ResultsNearly 86% of respondents felt their previously completed CE courses were either somewhat or extremely satisfactory. Over ninety percent of respondents who had completed online or distance CE coursesfound them to be somewhat or extremelysatisfactory. Almost half the respondents indicated that they most preferred online distance learning, while 34.08% most preferred face-to-face interaction. Fifty-three percent of respondents indicated an interest in starting a master's degree program; however 70.46% of respondents were interested in an online master's degree program that would offer CE credit. A response rate of 35.8% was obtained.ConclusionSatisfaction among chiropractors with CE programs is high. The notion of completing a part-time online master's degree (or online combined with face-to-face interaction) appears to be popular among respondents, with a M.Sc. in Chiropractic Sciences being the most popular of those mentioned. Online surveys are a viable method of obtaining opinion in a cost and time efficient manner; there are some sources of bias involved in this type of research, and numerous steps need to be taken to obtain a suitable response rate.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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