4H Career Chat with Chiropractor Dr. Roberts

• Good afternoon, my name is Blake Harris. I am a 2020, 21 state ambassador from Tallapoosa County. And here we have with us, Dr. Doug Roberts from Alexander city. He is a chiropractor, and he has worked on me a couple of times. So we’re just gonna ask him a couple of questions and Dr. Doug, take as long as you need to answer, we have plenty of time. Okay, so first things first, if you could give a definition, ‘cause some people may not know what a chiropractor is.

00:37 - So if you could give the definition of what a chiropractor is in your words, what would it be? - Sure what a chiropractor, first of all, chiropractor is recognized as a doctor, in all 50 States of the United States. And what a chiropractor does in a nutshell, is they look at the human spine for any spinal bones that are misaligned. And then they correct that alignment with what’s called an adjustment. And chiropractic can branch out from there into a lot of other kind of ancillary services and things that go along with that. But the primary focus is just to make sure, that the vertebrae in the spine are aligned correctly.

01:14 - That way the nervous system works like it’s supposed to, which helps your body stay strong and healthy. - Right, okay Okay, so the second one, what got you interested in chiropractic service? - Oh, that’s always a good one. Like I actually started going to a chiropractor when I was about 11 years old. And, it’s interesting, because I didn’t go to the chiropractor because I hurt my back. I went to the chiropractor because I had super bad stomach aches and we had been to all the different doctors.

01:43 - No one could find out what was wrong with me. I went to the hospital several times. They thought I had appendicitis. Finally, my mom took me to her chiropractor and he checked my spine and I had a couple of vertebrae there were out of place, in the middle of my back and in my neck. And he adjusted those. And he also told my mom to quit giving me milk for awhile because he thought I was lactose intolerant, - Yeah. - ‘cause back in the 80s, nobody knew what lactose-intolerant was, but the chiropractor did. And so I didn’t drink any milk and I got adjustments and I never had any more stomach problems.

02:13 - Then when I was about 17, I was in a severe, very severe horseback riding accident. I couldn’t walk for nine days. I was in bed. My, legs didn’t work right. I was the horse flipped over on top of me. And I went to the chiropractor. I went to the hospital first. They took x-rays made sure I was okay. And then I was in the backseat of the car. They took me straight to the chiropractor and he worked on me in the backseat of the car to adjust me, and then went back a few times and he finished correcting the problems that were caused by that accident. And that’s, sort of what got me interested was recognizing that you can help people without having to use surgery or medicine or tools or instruments.

02:51 - And I liked that independence that you really just need your, head, your heart and your hands, to do the job without a lot of equipment without a lot of, I don’t need an operating room. I don’t have to have a doctor’s office. I don’t have to have a bag full of things or be dependent on other people. It’s just what I have with me. I’m sort of a self-contained package. And I like that. That’s one of the things that really attracted me to chiropractic. - Okay, wonderful. So how long have you worked as a chiropractor? - Oh, let’s see if you don’t count school, which you actually do about two and a half years of your work in school as an internship, it would be, let’s see. 1996, so that’s 24 years May was 24 years March was 24 years. - Wow.

03:39 - okay what would be probably the most funniest moment you’ve ever experienced in your career? - Oh boy, let’s see. Without violating any patient privacy rules when it comes to that, I’m not gonna lie to you when this is just gonna be funny, but, when you adjust people, you kind of twist their bodies sometimes and you push on them and you pull on them. And sometimes the fact is it causes people to pass gas. - Oh, (laughs) - Once in a while. - Okay. - And I don’t know how else to say that - Okay well, I mean, I wonderful, I guess it wouldn’t be okay. So did you major in chiropractic or in college, or did you major in something else? - Well, that kind of to answer that question, I have to jump back just a little bit on what the educational requirements are for a chiropractor.

04:32 - And one of the things we’re required to do is have a bachelor’s degree in science. So you have to have a bachelor’s degree. It could be in chemistry, it could be in biology, it could be in pre-med anything that that would cover, all of your science requirements that give you enough chemistry, physical science, physics and math classes, would allow you to get your undergrad. Then you have to go to school for four more years in chiropractic college. So it’s an eight to nine year process to get your degree as a chiropractor. So, yes, in my post-grad work, I majored in chiropractic in your undergrad work. You have to major in sciences. - Okay.

05:12 - So what is a typical day like in your job? - Well, your, typical day obviously is include a lot of face to face, or I might say face to back time with people, throughout the day. So average, you’re gonna show up at work in the morning, the same as any other, doctor or someone with a regular job would, but your day is going to primarily be concerned with dealing with other people’s problems. So you’re gonna, first of all, if you have people that have never been to the chiropractor or never been to my office, there’s gonna be some introduction and some examination to find out what’s wrong with them. From there most of the day is the same. You’re adjusting that person. And then giving them recommendations on how to maintain their health, how to take care of their spine, things to do and not do. And then, then you’re gonna send them on their way.

06:01 - And, and that’s, an eight to 10 hour day usually. - Okay, what is the best thing about your job in your opinion? - I think for me, the best thing about my job is getting to help people. I enjoy the fact that I can provide something that they need, that they can’t get anywhere else, except at the chiropractor, because it’s a non duplicating service. What we do, no other healthcare provider does. So it’s kind of like a dentist. The only, a dentist can really do what your teeth need.

06:32 - We can only what we do can help the spine the way we can help it. And I enjoy being able to take and work with people that have serious problems, sometimes debilitating problems that have completely shut down their life. People sometimes have been on disability for a couple of years because of an injury and we’re able to help them and get them back on their feet, back to work back with the quality of life, spend time with their family, do the things they want to do and need to do both. So I would say helping people, watching people improve is the best part of my job. - Okay, I wanna kind of do the opposite. Last question. If there’s anything like the worst part of your job, if anything, what would it be? - Well, to be honest with you, the worst part of the job is having to work with insurance companies. - Yeah.

07:20 - - Not because insurance companies are bad, but because there’s a lot of red tape and a lot of complicated paperwork and procedural things that you have to do sometimes to justify the kind of work that you’re doing so that you can get reimbursed or your patients can reimburse, or your clinic can get reimbursed. So if there’s anything negative, it’s probably the time consuming factor that goes with dealing with the insurance red tape. So outside of that, there’s really no negatives for me, at least not in my clinic. - Okay, here’s the last question? What advice would you give a younger person who is interested in the chiropractic service? - Well, first they need to be someone that likes to truly help people. All right that’s the first thing. Second thing you have to also recognize when you’re a chiropractor, like many other forms of healthcare, you’re actually touching people.

08:12 - So if you’re not someone that likes to touch people or have your hands on people, you don’t need to be a chiropractor. Because there’s, there’s no long distance chiropractic. So there’s no robot chiropractic, like there is with surgeries and things. So you have to really enjoy helping people. And second you have to be okay with touching people all day. And the third thing is too, you have to be willing to recognize that you spend all day helping other people with their problems. And that’s sort of the, the mental, emotional side, stressful side of this kind of job that people don’t talk about sometimes. But you go to work all day for eight hours, 10 hours, and you spend the entire day helping other people solve their problems. You haven’t necessarily solved any of yours. So you still have to go home lunch or at night and solve your own problems too, or deal with your own issues.

08:59 - So you have to have a big tank, a big emotional tank, to be able to help other people with their problems. The other thing you have to do, you have to be willing to go to school for a long time, because you’re looking at a minimum of eight years of college before you even start working. So, you get out of school at 18, you’re gonna be 26 or 27 before you ever, ever start your real job. If you wanna call it that as a chiropractor. So there’s definitely some time involved in that.

09:27 - Some investment there’s some money invested in that. The education is not cheap, like any kind of healthcare provider. The education is pretty expensive when you’ve been there eight years. - So I guess that’s pretty much it. That’s all I got for you today. I appreciate you. - Yeah, no problem, and thanks for asking me to do this. I enjoy it. - Yeah. .