Student Clinical Program Goes to Romania

Two groups of senior chiropractic students (who had successfully completed all classroom requirements and were in their clinic hours) have initiated and completed the International Chiropractors Association's pilot clinicship program in Romania, primarily at the Camin de Handicopati, a Romanian state-run orphanage in the town of Negru Voda near the Black Sea.

The one-month clinicship program, undertaken with the approval of the Romanian government and with the participation of the Romanian Society for Physical Medicine, were designed to give the students a diverse clinical experience in a hospital setting and working with handicapped children.

The ICA entered into a cooperative agreement with English speaking Romanian physicians as project partners to assist in patient care on a multidisciplinary basis. The project participants were organized into teams of six to eight clinicians, supervised by an experienced doctor of chiropractic, and assisted by the English speaking Romanian physicians.

The first group of student clinicians departed October 20, 1993, returning November 22; the second group left November 17, 1993, and returned December 20.

The clinicians had a three day orientation prior to departure, followed by a week of orientation at the Municipal Hospital in Bucharest, the city's largest hospital and the teaching facility affiliated with Bucharest's medical school. The students spent their first week with the physical medicine teaching class, comprised of 35 Romanian students, and attended clinical review conferences and lectures. The American students also performed hospital rounds with the Romanian student doctors.

The orientation revolved around an extensive briefing on Romanian physical medicine. Manipulation is not employed in Romanian physical medicine in the chiropractic, medical or osteopathic sense. The ICA program is intended to introduce the Romanian health care community to chiropractic procedures, but the student clinicians were admonished from teaching chiropractic adjusting to any Romanian professionals. Likewise the students clinicians were expected to stay within the scope of chiropractic practice and not learn to employ medical procedures.

After their orientation, the students left for the Sanatoriul Balnear, a physical medicine spa/clinic located in the Black Sea resort town of Mangalia. This facility maintains a cooperative relationship with the medical school and offers in-patient care at an intermediate level, i.e., services are limited to basic diagnostic procedures and routine physical medicine procedures of bath therapy, light massage, electrical therapy, and exercise rehabilitation.

The students were housed at the sanitorium for the remainder of their stay, but their eight hour work days (5-6 days per week) were mostly spent at the orphanage of Camin de Handicopati in Negru Voda, a 25 minute drive southwest of the sanitorium. The orphanage houses some 250 children between the ages of 4 and 18, all suffering from various handicaps, and the effects of physical/mental trauma, malnutrition, and other disorders. The facility's director is a medical doctor, and there are two volunteer general practitioners from Great Britain currently at the site, in addition to some Romanian lay people who care for the children.

No comprehensive health care records exist on the Camin de Handicopati children, and a primary goal of the program was to assist the facility staff in the development of highly detailed, diagnostic and descriptive clinical records. Students were also encouraged to personally record their own clinic notes and findings to later develop into detailed case reports appropriate for publication. Expectations are that the program may generate extensive case reports that could make a significant contribution to the chiropractic literature.

There were four supervising DCs for the student clinicians:

• Gary Street, DC, PhC, ICA vice president, is a 1965 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic Since 1987, he has served on the continuing education faculty at Palmer. Dr. Street holds licenses in seven states and currently practices in Olney, Illinois.

   

• Mark Bowman, DC, a 1981 graduate of National College of Chiropractic, holds undergraduate degrees in biology and psychology. He has five years experience as a mental health worker at Northwestern University's Psychiatric Institute and worked for two years as a counsellor in the Virginia prison system. Dr. Bowman has been active in ICA's relief efforts in refugee camps in El Salvador and Guatemala.

   

• Timothy Pierce, a 1982 graduate of Life Chiropractic College, did undergraduate study at the Baptist College in Charleston, South Carolina and has done extensive postgraduate study in upper cervical adjusting, pediatrics, and risk management. President of the Northwest Alabama Chiropractic Society, Dr. Pierce serves as ICA's assembly representative from Alabama. He is a member of the continuing education faculty at Life College, and has spent considerable time in overseas programs in India, Africa, and Romania.

   

• Joan Fallon, DC, a 1983 graduate of Palmer, also has a BS in biology. She is a member of the postgraduate faculty of Palmer and is an assistant professor at Yeshiva University in New York City. Serving as co-chair of ICA's National Conference on Chiropractic and Pediatrics since 1991, Dr. Fallon has written and lectured extensively on the subject of pediatrics and is vice chair of ICA's Postgraduate Council on Pediatrics.

Participation in the Romanian Clinicship Program is open to all qualified applicants. Selection criteria include academic record, faculty and clinic recommendations, ability to function under difficult conditions and deal with the stress of working with chronically ill or severely disabled children. Applications are reviewed by a selection committee comprised of DCs personally familiar with the situation in Romania. An extensive interview on the applicant's campus is part of the final selection process.

The total cost of the program for each participant is $2,200, which includes round trip airfare from New York's JFK airport to Romania, lodging, food, ground transportation in Romania, and the necessary clinical supplies to provide care.

A $25 application fee, made out to the ICA, is required as part of the application process. This fee goes to a scholarship fund to support successful applicants of the Romanian program.

Clinical credit must be approved in advance by the student's clinic director.

For more information on the Romanian Clinicship Program, contact the ICA at 1110 N. Glebe Road, Suite 1000, Arlington, VA 22201 or telephone (703) 528-5000.

If you would like to support this unique program, donations can be made to FACTS (Foundation for the Advancement of Chiropractic Tenets and Science) at the ICA's address.

Material donations may be sent directly to the ICA. Pressing needs include: cloth diapers, plastic pants, baby bottles, plastic mattress covers, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, brushes, mirrors, picture books, crayons, building blocks, multivitamins, powdered mild, liquid food supplements, cleaning supplies, sterile surgical and exam gloves, thermometers, ... and childrens' clothing.

Call the ICA at 1-800-423-4690 if you have any questions about donations.