I am not surprised at all by the responses in opposition. It was expected. Of course, many will oppose this change. It seems simple, but it's actually more complicated.
The chiropractic profession has 1,400 doctors in the Commonwealth. The total response rate is less than 7%. Opposition to change is always more vocal. So, 93% choose not to post a comment.
The majority of the responses indicate that it would be a burden for them to obtain live CE. Being a doctor has rights, privileges, and responsibilities. That comes with burdens. I have no opposition to an exception in the case of pregnancy, illness, care of family members, etc
It has been stated in the comments that other professions in Virginia do not have this live requirement. Not true, Optometry requires “At least 10 hours shall be obtained through real-time, interactive activities, including in-person or electronic presentations, provided that during the course of the presentation, the licensee and the lecturer may communicate with one another.” Psychology requires “At least six of the required hours shall be earned in face-to-face or real-time interactive educational experiences. Real-time interactive shall include a course in which the learner has the opportunity to interact with the presenter during the time of the presentation”. The Occupational Therapist, another hands of profession regulated by the Board of Medicine, requires a “live event” for a portion of their CE.
In the chiropractic profession, it is not uncommon, 17 states require some live face-to-face CE for the chiropractic profession. I suggest that this trend of requiring live CE will spread to most states.
I choose to “stay in my lane” and not include the MD, DO, and Doctors of Podiatry or any other profession in my petition. Those professions need to have this conversation, and it is not my place to bring it up. The medical colleagues I know get way more CE than the VA requirement. MD and DO are not worried about their BOM CE requirement; they far exceed it every year. If they have a Fellowship or Board certification, hospital privileges, which have many CE requirements and opportunities, much of which are live, to gain educational interactions.
I fully admit that the state of live chiropractic CE in Virginia in very limited.
No chiropractic colleges bring live CE to Virginia anymore. They used to come to Virginia.
None of the independent CE programs comes to Virginia. They used to come here.
Only the state association offers face-to-face CE programs, a spring and fall event. They no longer do regional CE programs across the state as they once did.
The reason is simple…nobody attends.
It is unfortunate that CE has become a victim of an Amazon-like model. Shopping on Amazon is super convenient, it has a massive inventory and the cheapest prices. Amazon has run everyone else out of business. But we are not talking about merchandise; we are talking about the CE for doctors. My proposal does not say doctors cannot take online CE on topics that interest them. It just says you need to be face-to-face in a live classroom at some point.
Image if Virginia Docs came to live events, one time a year or even once every two years. With 1400 DCs in Virginia, the numbers work. It would completely change chiropractic CE in Virginia. The chiropractic schools would once again offer live CE in Virginia. The other CE groups would also come in Virginia. The UVCA would hold more CE events across the state. Nobody would have to take a flight or even stay in a hotel to meet their CE. There would be a large variety of live events in each region of the state. This is what we should expect to see for CE for doctors.
We are witnessing firsthand the impact on our communities of online living. It impacts our communities in so many ways, economically, socially and professionally. The path chosen on this topic will decide the quality of chiropractic in Virginia. If you do not like the number of face-to-face hours suggested, please select another number. Maybe half, 15 of the 30 biannually? Even 10 of the 30 would make a difference.