I am often asked by other providers and veterans why I chose to continue my clinical and professional chiropractic education within the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system. As the largest healthcare system in the U.S., opportunities for professional growth within the VA are endless. As a new practitioner, VA is a great place to expand your comfort zone, gain experience in integrative care, grow confidence in complex and chronic health conditions, and gain exposure to a variety of clinical settings, as well as didactic and research opportunities.

Chronic pain is the No. 1 cause of American adults seeking integrated care in this country. In 2016, an estimated 20.4 percent of U.S. adults (50 million) had chronic pain and 8 percent of U.S. adults (19.6 million) had high-impact chronic pain, with higher prevalence associated with advancing age. The Veterans Health Administration is taking a new approach to this not so new problem: a holistic view including both physical and emotional well-being. The Whole Health initiative focuses not on what is the matter with the patient, but rather what matters to the patient.

A VA chiropractic residency exposes participants to a wide range of treatments. In this blog post, resident Vivian Ly, DC, of the Connecticut VA discusses "battlefield acupuncture" or BFA. Air Force Colonel Richard Niemtzow introduced the BFA protocol in 2001 as a subset of auricular acupuncture. In 2013, $5.4 million was awarded to the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) to teach BFA to healthcare providers in both the military and department of Veterans Affairs and assess it. Dr. Ly notes that BFA is easily learned and has been proposed to treat a variety of conditions that cause pain in active military members and veterans.

A new cohort of residents has joined the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system’s Chiropractic Residency Program this year. Three chiropractors participating in the program – Vivian Ly, DC, Danielle Aslan, DC, and Dr. Jamie Zeman, DC – will continue ACA’s blog series on the residency program over the next year, sharing their experiences as well as lessons learned working as part of an integrated hospital team.

Although the culture of health care is shifting and complementary and alternative options are being implemented in hospital and primary care settings, many allopathic practitioners are not necessarily familiar with chiropractic. My biggest take-away from being exposed to interprofessional collaboration on a day-to-day basis in the VA is the need for chiropractors to prepare answers to questions regarding what chiropractic care is, common conditions seen, neurophysiological effects of treatment, and the incidence of adverse events.