Diplomate Requirements
The ICPA Diplomate Program has 10 requirements, each designed to be a huge asset to your practice growth and success.
- Assessment and Application of Family Practice Knowledge: 32 Hours
- Contribution to Research: 32 Hours
- Clinical Results: 4 Hours
- Contribution to Training: 32 Hours
- Fostering Collaboration: 4 Hours
- Effective Writing: 32 Hours
- Building Community: 12 Hours
- Public Education: 4 Hours
- Clinical Excellence: 24 hours
- Continuing Education: 24 hours
1. Assessment and Application of Family Practice Knowledge: 32 Hours
These hours are accrued by successfully completing the following exams: Perinatal Certification multiple choice exams, Pediatric Certification multiple choice exams, Pediatric Certification Capstone Exam.
2. Contribution to Research: 32 hours
Register, participate, and complete one in-office ICPA Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) data collection project AND publish one Case Study.
PBRN:
- Read about the prerequisites for PBRN registration here
- Contact PBRN@icpa4kids.com with any questions, or to register for a study.
Case Study:
- A peer-reviewed research paper with acceptance for publication by a peer-reviewed journal. This paper must be relevant to pediatrics, perinatal care or family wellness.
- Review your class notes from "Research: Evidence-Informed Practice (Online)"
- Review the complimentary refresher course presented by our Research Director, Dr. Joel Alcantara D.C.
3. Clinical Results: 4 hours
Provide (3) children and/or pregnancy written testimonials with narratives from you and your patients/parents about the quality of life improvements under your care. These case write-ups are similar to practice testimonials and may be published in Pathways to Family Wellness Magazine. These testimonials are on the power of chiropractic, not on you, the chiropractor.
Guidelines for Testimonials
- 800 words maximum.
- A high-resolution photo of you with the patient (preferably adjusting) required.
- DO NOT include the patient's full name. First name and last initial are fine.
- Important Forms for Participants to Sign:
4. Contribution to Training: 32 hours
Create and Film a One Hour Class on content that you have learned and perfected as a family chiropractor. Focus on the science, art or philosophy of Chiropractic.
ICPA Diplomates are leaders in their communities and in the profession. You are striving to achieve a leadership position in the area of pregnancy, pediatrics, and family care. This is your opportunity to step into the role of teacher and present your own original ideas or area of expertise. Consider the niche you practice in or a particular component of your practice approach that could be helpful for other ICPA doctors to learn or become aware of. This can be technique, patient education, practice management, or philosophical in nature.
Guidelines for Course Development:
- Syllabus - Submit syllabus for approval prior to creating your presentation and PowerPoint
- Powerpoint presentation - Submit PowerPoint prior to filming your presentation for approval
- Recording of you delivering the presentation - Zoom works well for creating a recording of you delivering a presentation while capturing both your Powerpoint and you on screen. (link)
5. Fostering Collaboration: 4 hours
Write a letter of introduction to an OB and a pediatrician. Your letter should be an explanation of your practice and your practice philosophy. Include in the letter your desire to collaborate and support the community.
6. Effective Writing: 32 hours
The ICPA strives to elevate the understanding of salutogenesis with regards to birth, health care, parenting and chiropractic practice. Our training, research and public education efforts are to build a greater knowledgebase of information to support and validate chiropractic’s unique clinical service within a salutogenic model.
While pathogenesis continues to serve as the primary paradigm in health care, regulatory agencies, politics, and the public; the need for a coherent expression of salutogenesis has never been greater.
ICPA diplomates are leaders in offering chiropractic services within a salutogenic model. You are being asked to provide here 5 essays that explore how you will contribute to the vision of the ICPA to shift the consciousness of the culture to embrace a salutogenic viewpoint. Each essay should be approximately 1000 - 3000 words.
- Explain salutogenesis: Please give an academic explanation of salutogenesis that explores the concept of sense of coherence, SOC (including comprehensibility, manageability, and meaning) as well as patient general resistance resources, GRR, in the context of the care that chiropractors provide. Also, explain how the environment and procedures utilized in chiropractic practice can keep a salutogenic perspective.
- Explaining Webster to an Obstetrician/Gynecologist or another healthcare professional: An OB/GYN contacts your office and states that a mutual patient reported to them that they (the patient) were consulting your chiropractic office to turn their breech baby. In speaking with the OB/Gyn, you realize they know very little about chiropractic. You offer to meet with them in their office to discuss chiropractic care during pregnancy. Please explain what you would share. Include an explanation of dystocia, physiology, and biomechanics. How would you explain Webster (and chiropractic care) within a salutogenic model?
- Conceptualizing a research project with the Research Director – Dr. Joel Alcantara: Propose a research question and how it would be answered/addressed within the salutogenic framework of chiropractic. Look to your own practice and clinical experience to determine what clinical/research question you feel needs to be conducted. What are unexplored aspects of chiropractic care that have not been addressed that you are interested in? Focus the question on something specific and how you would go about answering the question. Explore how the research will build an understanding of salutogenic care versus pathogenic care in a chiropractic clinical setting. Dr. Alcantara can be reached at research@icpa4kids.com.
- Transitioning a patient’s perspective to continue care beyond the resolution of symptoms: Parents of a three-year-old consult your office to resolve the child’s ear infections. You have explained the goal of chiropractic care is to improve nervous system function and you are not “treating” the ear infections. You gave them a three-month program of care. They followed your recommendations. The child’s spine is improved as well, the ear infections seem to have resolved. How do you explain the benefits of continued care within a salutogenic approach?
- An exploration of how you will advance the idea of salutogenesis within your practice and/or the profession: This is a free form essay in which you will explain how you will / can advance an understanding and expression of salutogenesis in your practice, your community, and/or the profession at large.
7. Building Community: 12 hours
Recognizing the need for parents to find pertinent health information to make informed conscious choices for their families, ICPA created monthly “Gathering Groups” called Pathways Connect. The criteria to demonstrate effective communication skills is to establish a Pathways Connect group in your practice.
ICPA Members host Pathways Connect groups in their offices. Meetings are based on having intelligent discussions relating to family wellness matters. ICPA provides participating doctors with quarterly talking points, guidelines, and additional resources so the groups can explore the many topics relevant to family wellness. You will learn group education skills, non-violent group management and will be exposed to research and information at the forefront of family wellness issues. You are required to initiate and maintain a Pathways Connect group, providing evidence of its successful implementation via video or photos.
Guidelines to fulfill Pathways Connect requirement:
- Place a recurring (quarterly) bulk order for 10 or more copies of Pathways magazine (50 or more for imprinting). Subscribe to Pathways here.
- Contact ICPA to enroll in Pathways Connect to receive the "Getting Started" materials. Once enrolled, you will be listed on our Pathways Connect Directory. Prior to each upcoming issue, you will receive via email: an early digital copy of Pathways and a link to questions for discussion at your Pathways Connect Gathering Group.
- Complete the “Pathways Connect Planning Workbook”
- The group should meet at minimum monthly for at least 6 months.
- Submit the following: Pictures of the group with topics and discussions for each month, “Pathways Connect Planning Workbook”, 1 page summary of your experience establishing and holding Pathways Connect meetings
- Important Forms for Participants to Sign:
Read John “Doc” Edwards’ first-handed account of what Pathways Connect can do for you, your practice, and your wellness community.
8. Public Education: 4 hours
The ICPA Board and Instructors are practitioners who have been in practice catering to children and pregnant women between 20-30 years. We recognize the value of patient education and the ability to publicly speak to the community. With this in mind, these criteria is included in Diplomate requirements: submission of a video recorded healthcare class created and presented by you, being given to an audience of patient attendees.
Providing a healthcare class offers the practitioner numerous benefits, such as improvement of public speaking skills and patient outreach. Several of our certification instructors provide brief overviews or outlines to complete healthcare classes. If you already have a healthcare class, you need only to record it and submit it to ICPA. If you are not currently offering a class, you may use the outline, audio, and transcript provided by Dr. Peter Kevorkian in his course “Building the Chiropractic Family Practice”.
The other option is to create your own. Either way, filming of you delivering the class in front of a live audience is required.
Guidelines to fulfill Healthcare Class:
- The talk should be no less than 30 minutes.
- Included within the talk these concepts:
- Health – wellbeing, adaptability, salutogenesis
- The body is self-healing and self-regulating
- The role of the nerve system in controlling body function
- How nerve interference affects health and well being
- What can cause nerve interference (subluxations)
- How chiropractors adjust people to improve function
- Important Forms for Participants to Sign:
9. Clinical Excellence: 24 hours
This requirement is to video record:
- Initial consultation
- Initial comprehensive exam
- Report of findings
- Spinal assessment
- Initial adjustment
These videos will need to be performed on a pregnant mom and an infant (less than 6 months). The consultation and the report of findings on the infant should be to the parent(s) of the child.
These videos will be submitted to the Academy Council Of Chiropractic Pediatrics for grading. Grading assessment and criteria include: skills in consultations, evidence of criteria for care in exam, specific indicated adjustment, assessment for correction. Release forms are provided for volunteer patients.
Guidelines to fulfill Clinical Skills Video Submissions:
- Whether you do your initial consultation, exam, and adjustment on the first visit or break them down into more than one visit, each interaction must be recorded.
- The consultation will simply be a recording that is able to capture both you and the pregnant mother and parent in the conversation.
- For the initial exam please provide a written outline of the tests and findings in the same sequence as the video.
- For the report of findings, please provide the paperwork that the patient is given.
- For the spinal assessment and adjustment videos, please provide a written format describing what you were assessing, what your findings were, what you adjusted and why, and then post-check. Please view the Spinal Evaluation and Adjustment guidelines to see what is required.
- Important Forms for Participants to Sign:
10. Continuing Education: 24 hours
- Complete 20 hours of ICPA continuing education. This can include any current ICPA courses that you have not completed, including advanced electives. You will need to complete a refresher course of Perinatal Care with Webster Certification if you last took it in 2017 or earlier.
- 4 hours of CPR/First Aid Certification. Find your local Red Cross or American Heart Association. Acquire your CPR and First Aid certification with their organization and send a copy of your certification to the ICPA Certifications Coordinator.
Questions?
Contact Us | Certification@icpa4kids.com | (610) 565-2360
