Well-Adjusted with Dr. Martha Kaeser, Dean - College of Chiropractic

In this episode, Dr. Martha Kaeser provides insights into the UWS DC program, her background, and what sets us apart. 

To learn more, check us out at www.uws.edu. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

It's just that passion that they exude for the profession and have for their entire life.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to a University of Western States podcast. Located here in Portland, Oregon, and online, University of Western States offers a world-class integrated healthcare education focusing on the whole person and provides an evidence-informed approach to health and wellness. For more information about UWS, visit us at www.us.edu. My name is Nathan Long, president of the university. Today I am joined by the distinguished, fabulous, incredible Dr. Martha Kayser, Dean of the College of Chiropractic. I've had the pleasure of working with uh may I call you Marty? You may, absolutely. Dr. Kayser, also known as Marty, uh, for the last year as I've transitioned from my previous appointment at Saybrook University in Pasadena, California. And I uh will say what I have said to so many of my colleagues. Uh Marty, Dr. Kayser is just a joy to work with her passion for education, for excellence, and for uh keeping the student at the center of everything we do is just really inspiring to me. Dr. Kayser, Marty, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I appreciate those words, those kind words, Nathan. It's a pleasure to have you with us. And may I call you Nathan?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Okay, it's a pleasure to have you at UWS. I think we are on the right track to great things.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Indeed, indeed. Well, so let's come right out of the gate. Um, when you and I were traveling the back roads of Alberta, Canada, you gave us some insights into your background. I thought it was just so fascinating. So for our audience, could you just spend a few minutes telling us your story, uh, how you got into the profession, what were some of your major inspirations, and any pivotal moments during your education?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Absolutely. Yes, I recall that that trip through Alberta fondly. Um, we I did talk a little bit about why I got involved with chiropractic. And I grew up as a a um my father was a chiropractor, so I grew up knowing chiropractic. That's all I knew as far as healthcare went, right? Um, so he graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1929. So he was one of the, if I may, old school chiropractors, right? A chiropractor who really felt that no matter what came at an individual in regards to an illness or or some kind of health concern, chiropractic could take care of it. And and so that's what I grew up knowing. And and I really he had a he had his office in the basement, so I was able to on many occasions wander downstairs after school and visit with patients. And it was such a um an incredible experience to connect with these folks, similar to what my dad was doing. He was connecting with his patients, and it really made me um want to do something similar in the future. He was always saying, when when I passed the torch, you know, this is going to be the my my daughter's going to be the next chiropractor to take care of um generations to come. And so um, yeah, I I grew up with that love of just that patient interaction and a respect for chiropractic. So that um catapulted me into wanting to become a chiropractor. Now, I did not initially, I went into pre-chiropractic in my undergraduate. I was going to um pursue, pursue right away going to Palmer College of Chiropractic because that's all I knew. And well, I got into some sciences and realized, boy, this is tough stuff. It is, it's going to be hard to be a chiropractor, right? It's a rigorous program. And so I, as an undergraduate, I wasn't, I didn't feel like I wanted to take on that at the time. So instead, I pivoted to a different profession. And I education became my passion. It still is my passion, and we'll talk a little bit about that probably later. But I just uh got away from chiropractic for about 20 years. I was in education and and came full circle, though. I I realized that education was something I'm very passionate about. I enjoy very much. But I when my mother got ill, um, I realized healthcare system, our healthcare system is a broken system. And I really felt like I wanted to contribute in some way that was not necessarily in the way she was being treated as a patient. She had cancer and she would go and get her her um chemotherapy treatments, and then she would just go home and wait until her next treatment. And there was really no emphasis on how do we take care of you between these treatments? How do we um how can we make you feel better? So that uh I realized that I maybe that that's an area where I I can make a difference. So at the age of 39 or 40, I believe, I decided I would go ahead and become that chiropractor that my father had had encouraged me to become when I was a young person.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Oh, that's fabulous. I I you you of course uh grew up in the in the household of someone who went to the first chiropractic college in the country, I believe, to that accurate, right? And uh found yourself coming all the way to University of Western States from the Midwest, uh, which is the second oldest chiropractic college in the country. Fun fact for our our listeners, uh listeners and viewers, um, the reality of our existence is predicated on the fact that Palmer, uh Dr. Palmer, and a couple other folks came out west and we had four competing, I believe it was four competing institutions of chiropractic in Portland, Oregon, some uh 121 years ago. And then University of Western States was born as the Marsh College and consolidated and all that good stuff. So you're you're living in the history and you're bringing it forward, uh, Dr. Caseer. It's pretty awesome. Could you help our audience understand a little bit exactly what chiropractic is? I think there we'll get into the misconceptions and biases in in a little bit out there in the public domain. But I think um when I came, I had a uh, you know, I engaged in chiropractic care, but I don't know that I was all that familiar with the you know, kind of just exactly what it is a chiropractor does. And so maybe for our audience that would be helpful to hear.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

So a chiropractor is going to address the musculoskeletal system first and foremost of a patient, right? So a patient's likely going to come into an office and have some kind of pain, and the chiropractor is going to take a thorough history, a thorough assessment, and determine how to manage this and determine that whether they can or can't manage it, right? There may be some instances where a chiropractor will need to co-treat or will need to send the patient out to get care, but because the chiropractor really is going to focus on the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system when it comes to treating a patient. And it's often with hands-on approach. So if a patient is struggling with some kind of low back pain, headache, those kinds of things, there's going to be some form of manipulation that takes place after a thorough history, after a thorough assessment. And so that's going to be this conservative hands-on approach to getting a patient better, right? Their first line is not going to be, their first uh way to treat a patient is not going to be necessarily with medications. And actually, that's out of our scope of practice. We're not going to ever treat a patient with medications. That would be something, though, that it we would send a patient out and co-treat with a medical doctor if that were needed. But we are a very hands-on profession and and um addresses mostly musculoskeletal and neurological um concerns.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

That's great. You know, it is uh, you know, a friend of mine when I was uh deciding whether to come to University of Western States, you know, they're like, well, I don't know about that chiropractic profession. And I said, Well, my time here has proven otherwise that it's uh rigorous, um scientifically based uh or evidence-informed based approach to healthcare. Um there are a lot of distinctive factors about UWS in terms of how we work with conventional medicine, which is just those were some real anchor points for me uh coming into the institution. And I know for many of our students and faculty it's a game changer. That said, there are a lot of misnomers and mythologies out there about what chiropractors do or don't do. Um would you be willing to address just a few of those for our audience today and talk about um maybe how chiropractors in general combat those mythologies and things that we could do collectively in education and the chiropractic profession can do to uh further uh legitimize the very fine work that they do.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Oftentimes we hear, especially if we're in um the midst of other healthcare practitioners, um, we hear sometimes that, well, you're not a real doctor, right? You're not an MD, so you can't be a real doctor. And and of course, the way we would answer that is we have a very rigorous educational program that's very similar to a medical doctor. We do graduate with a doctor of chiropractic degree, which means that yes, we are in fact doctors. And talking about some of that rigorous education we go through that's very similar to a medical doctor. The basic sciences are going to be comparable between the two professions, right? We are going through all the microbiology courses, the human anatomy courses, the histology, all of those allergies, if you will. We have that background. There we're also going through heavy clinical education courses. So we're learning how to diagnose and manage a patient. We're going through the chiropractic science courses where you're learning to treat the patient with safe manipulation and determining whether that is best for the patient, whether manipulation is best for the patient. So, yes, we are doctors, we are licensed practitioners, just as medical doctor has boards, uh, medical students have boards they need to take, our students need to take boards, whether they're international students or they're um national students, they're needing to take um multiple parts of their boards in order to be a licensed DC and a licensed doctor. So that when when I hear that you're not a real chiropractor, that's how I combat some of those things. Also, I hear oftentimes once you go to a chiropractor, you're never going to stop going to a chiropractor. They're always going to want you to come back. Well, my first comment is it's your choice. You are the patient, and you have a choice whether you would continue care with the chiropractor or not, right? Um I also mentioned that the the musculoskeletal issues, if you will, the the the um condition that you may have, the the aches and pains you may have, they've probably arrived over multiple years, months of, and it's not going to be something that we can just take care of in one visit. So yes, we are going to, in order to get you back to functioning in the way that you want to be functioning and meeting, meeting those goals that you have for yourself, it is going to take a few more, um, it is going to take multiple visits. And it's all determined by the assessment, the history taking. It's going to be all uh based on who you are and and um how you're going to um how you're going to end up um benefiting from the care. Right. So very individualized, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. Right. So some folks may have to come multiple times, others maybe not as many.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Which is truly a remarkable asset, I think, to the chiropractic profession. Yeah. It many of our students, student interns and practicing uh faculty, as well as the practitioners I've met out in the field, often take quite a bit of time with the patient on the front end. Um and of course, what it I there's the kind of crude term whack them and crack them physicians, not to put any bad things out there about that approach, but certainly I the way we teach our students is to really take a patient-centered um really wellness approach to helping that individual achieve their goals and objectives. Is that fair to say?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

No, that's absolutely fair to say. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Okay, great. One of UWS's, I think, um shining stars, if you will, is this idea of evidence-informed, uh, evidence-based uh care, evidence-based, evidence-informed curriculum. Could you briefly describe what that is exactly and what sets UWS apart from maybe some other types of programs? We we won't list the names of the schools, but certainly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Absolutely. So we we are we take pride in our evidence-informed approach and and students come to us because of that evidence-informed approach. I hear that most often when I ask a student why they are interested in UWS, and they often are saying because there is such an evidence informed approach to what we're doing. Whether it's evidence-informed approach to how we're educating students, we're using the best practices when it comes to adult learning theory and how students learn. We're also using the best practices and that evidence when it comes to teaching pay or teaching our students how to treat a patient. So not every, I it wouldn't be realistic for us to have our students going to their literature every time a patient comes in and they want to um treat that patient in an evidence-informed manner. It's just not realistic. There we don't have enough time in the day to do that. But we're going to teach um our students how to access that literature, how to use that as the starting point for the decisions we make. But at the same time, as I said in clinic, we can't always go to the literature and make decisions for every patient. There's the clinical, there, there is the clinician expertise that goes along with this evidence-informed approach, right? Um and all the DCs that have been in practice for multiple years are going to tell you, I'm I have seen this type of patient, I have seen this presentation a multiple multiple times, and I know how I'm going to treat them because of my expertise in that area, right? And so an evidence-informed approach does focus on the literature and what is in the literature as far as the the research goes to treating patients, but it's also using and it's respecting that clinical expertise that our clinicians have. And then we also are are wanting our patients to have a say in in the treatment as well, right? We can't ignore the patient in a very patient-centered professional like ours. We also want to involve them in the decision making. So everything we in our curriculum, we are really we have that thread of evidence-informed um application, if you will, to the many things that we're teaching students so that they know how to apply that evidence when it comes to making decisions about their patients. Because it's going to impact the patient outcomes in a positive way.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Oh, big time. Yeah, absolutely. You've you've already alluded to this in you know, in many ways, but I I I would guess a lot of our audience and listeners who are tuning in, if you will, uh to use an old radio term, um, are thinking about chiropractic as a career. But we'll probably have some folks who are thinking about like if I had choices, you know, I might look at becoming an MD or a DO or a DC or a uh Doctor of Physical Therapy. There's a whole uh panoply of options out there. Why should um, you know, a student or a prospective student consider chiropractic as a career and specifically University of Western States?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, so I I spent some time thinking about this question because here I've had this posed to me before. Why why should a student choose X over Y? Um and I'm never going to downplay any healthcare profession, I think. All professions have are beneficial. But I I think the way I'd like to answer that is I travel around as I talk to doctors, travel around or doctors come in to onto our campus and talk to me. It's just that passion that they exude for the profession and have for their entire life, right? I saw this with my father, I saw this, I see this with DC's alumni, with our um community-based clinical educators, I see it with our clinical educators here on campus. They're they're continuing to practice with passion. How could any student not look at that and say, I want to be, I want to do that, I want to have that passion as I go through my career. 30 years, 40 years, that kind of passion. And I think that passion draws from they get the connections with patients, that hands-on connection with patient, that face-to-face connection. And it really, there's nothing better than being told by a patient, you've changed my life. You know, you have helped me to do this. Um, I'm able to now interact in a way I've never been able to. I never thought that I could run a mile as of 65-year-old, and now I'm running a mile and I'm competing with some of these younger folks. It's just that how could that not charge up a um physician, a doc chiropractic physician? So um that's why I think the choice is right to be a chiropractor, right? It is you also can write your own, oftentimes write your own um business plan, if you will. There's so many opportunities for chiropractors, right? There's solo practices, there's multidisciplinary practices, there's hospital-based clinics, there are community health centers. You can stay in radiology, you can do what I'm doing and stay in academia. Um, you can you can do both. You can are many of our faculty are not only teaching here at the university, but they're also practicing. So you can just write your own um journey, right? You can you just really you're not stuck in one area your entire life. You might decide that you're you want to start pursuing sports medicine and you you go that route. So I I think it's just exciting. And and I have heard it brought down to just a few. Well, I'll one final thought I'll mention on this. So oftentimes our students will say, I want to, I either was going to be a physical therapist or I was going to be a DC. And I've heard it summed up as as a physical therapist, you are able to treat the patient, right? But as a chiropractor, you can assess, diagnose, and treat. So they the diagnosis part may not be as strong as the diagnosis part that the chiropractic um profession has. And I that often is something students really resonate with. They want to be able to see the patient um throughout the entire span of their health care. So I think that's what a chiropractor can do as a as a um provider, a portal of entry provider, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Which is incredible. Yeah. And it you to your point, there are so many pathways for students to choose once they graduate uh from the program. Now, very briefly, but it's an important question. So, what is the typical length of our chiropractic curriculum? Um, and uh when they graduate, how do we determine they're competent?

SPEAKER_01 21:04

So, not only are you going to learn, we're going to have you learning clinical education skills early on, you're also going to be immersed in your first year in the foundational sciences. The foundational foundational sciences are important because you're going to need those in order to pass your licensure exams. It's also important so that you can make some connections to these foundational skills and patient care later on and patient diagnosis, if you will. Throughout the program, you're also going to start learning how to treat the patient, how to adjust the patient, how to some of the soft tissue techniques that you're going to learn so that you're able to manage the patient. And I talked a little bit about the evidence informed approach that we take. Those are also woven throughout the curriculum. You also have some opportunities to choose electives. So we talked about there's many pathways you can take after graduation. There's also some pathways you can take in the curriculum, whether you want to explore. Further some managing pediatric patients. Maybe you want to explore some specific techniques, you're able to do that then in the electives. So how do we determine you're competent by the end of this program? You're going to need to demonstrate competency as part of the accreditors. The accreditors let us know that the students need to have X, Y, and Z. I think there's 32 X, Y, and Z in order to graduate from our program. And so you need to reach a certain threshold. And then we have to determine that you are competent to go ahead and sit for those licensure exams then. And to and to graduate with a doctor of chiropractic degree.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

That was absolutely phenomenal. If I ever had had the skill to articulate a three-year curriculum in that kind of a time frame, I'd have been like a millionaire. That was really, really terrific. Thank you. So last couple of questions I have for you. These are these are fun, a little easy, uh excellent. I think impactful. So in a few words, when you think about University of Western States, what comes to mind?

SPEAKER_01 23:09

I think community. I think we are a community of students and a com a community of students with with faculty that are also involved in in developing that community. And all of that community is for the good of the patient, right? We're really um working to make sure our students not only take care of each other, but also with the end in sight, taking care of our patients.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

That's great. And lastly, what does whole person health mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah, whole person health care is something that we are teaching our students to be able to address when they graduate. Not only seeing the patient as someone who's coming in with pain, whether it's headache, low back pain, maybe an extremity, they have elbow pain, what might it, whatever. They're coming into us with this one complaint, but we're going to look at the whole person. We're going to look at the things that may have impacted that patient's headache, their low back pain, or their elbow pain. So it's really make exploring the patient, whether that's through the history taking, whether that's through the assessment or in the orthopedic test, but really looking at the whole person. Sometimes that can be looking at their diet. That can be looking at what what is a um what's a typical day look like you look like for you, so that we can start figuring out how um why that neck pain, back pain, or elbow pain may have started in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

That's right. That's very good. And I think, you know, just uh quick sort of musing about this is that uh we were having a conversation uh some time ago up in Vancouver, British Columbia, uh with a uh practitioner, and we were talking about the importance of counseling uh and psychology in relation to the profession. And they were so excited that we were offering those disciplines and wanted to know if they could enroll in one of those courses to augment what they uh are doing in the clinic to, you know, within scope, clearly there are limitations, right? But also to be able to identify some of those key challenges, and I would say to all the other areas that you were talking about. Um, I think of all the stressors and the mental health challenges that that are rampant across our country and really around the globe, and those can impact your neck and and spinal health as much as anything else. I would say absolutely. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Well, Dr. Kazer, this has been a joy. Um, I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day. And we know you're really busy. Where can people find you online? And if you have any books or research you want to point people towards, you know, that would be great too.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah, you can reach me on at LinkedIn. I I'm there. And other than that, I'm not I don't have a lot of other social media um contacts, but LinkedIn, you can definitely find me there. I do have some publications. You can go to PubMed. I think there's a good dozen of them or so. I'm have been published in some peer-reviewed journals like the Journal of Chiropractic Education or Humanities, Clinics and Practice. So before I was a um before I so I came out of chiropractic school and I immediately went into a radiology residency program. So I really got involved with residency heavily. And at that time I had to do a lot of publications. So you'll find some of my publications that I did when I was in my residency program.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

It's beautiful. A published author to boot. That's that's terrific. So let that be an opportunity to note for our current students, talk to Dr. Kayser about our research. It's uh I have no doubt it's probably really good. So many thanks, uh, Dr. Kayser.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

And to our audience, thank you for spending time with us uh today. I encourage you to keep exploring the vast world of health and wellness and all that it offers, uh, because it does lead to richer, healthier, and happier lives. As a reminder, you can find us online at www.us.edu. Uh and you can also visit us on social media. You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, uh, X, or formerly known as Twitter, uh, and even Instagram. Um I hope you'll continue to join me. This is our very first inaugural podcast. We'll continue to evolve it, but Dr. Kaiser was willing to join us on this maiden voyage, which I am truly, truly grateful for. Uh, and I hope you'll join our guests and me as we continue to explore the mind, body, and beyond. Take care and be well. Signing off for now.