Inside Boreal's Preceptor Program: How We Train Students

By Dr. Michael Minenna D.C., B.Sc., SFMA, FMS

Most patients meet a chiropractor only after years of training are already behind them. What's less visible is how that training actually happens — and how much of it depends on clinical mentorship rather than textbooks alone. At Boreal Spine & Sport, training the next generation of clinicians is part of who we are, not a side project. Here's a look at how our preceptor program works and why it matters for the kind of care patients receive.

Why hands-on mentorship matters

Classroom knowledge and clinical judgement are different skills. A student can recite the anatomy of the shoulder perfectly and still need guidance to recognize how a real person's shoulder problem is being driven by their mid-back. The gap between knowing and doing is closed through supervised, real-world experience — what educators call experiential and competency-based learning.^1,2 Medical and health-professions education has been moving steadily toward this model for exactly this reason: competence is demonstrated in practice, not just on exams.²

What a student learns at Boreal

Our program is built around the same principles that define how we treat. Students don't just learn to find the painful spot and treat it — they learn to assess the whole kinetic chain and ask why a problem developed. That means real fluency with movement-based assessment: watching how someone squats, steps, and rotates to locate the actual driver of their symptoms rather than chasing the pain.³

They also learn the unglamorous, essential parts of practice: taking a thorough history, communicating clearly with patients in plain language, reading the research critically, and building rehabilitation plans grounded in progressive loading rather than passive modalities alone. The goal is a clinician who can explain not just what they're doing, but why.

A philosophy worth passing on

One idea we make sure every student carries out the door is that there are no bad exercises — only too much too soon.⁴ It sounds simple, but it reshapes how a young clinician thinks about rehab. Instead of labelling movements as dangerous or forbidding activity, they learn to think in terms of dosage and capacity: meet the tissue where it is, then build. That mindset produces better outcomes and more confident patients.

From rotational to performance-based

We're in the process of evolving how students progress through the clinic — moving from a simple rotation model toward a more performance-based approach, where advancement reflects demonstrated competence rather than just time served. The aim is to graduate clinicians who are genuinely ready, and to build a consistent standard of care that travels with them wherever they practice.

Why this is good for patients

A clinic that teaches is a clinic that stays sharp. Explaining your reasoning to a student forces you to keep it current and evidence-based; you can't coast on habit when someone is asking "why?" all day. Patients benefit from that rigour, and from being part of an environment where careful, whole-person assessment is the everyday standard.

If you're a chiropractic student curious about a placement, or a patient who likes knowing the clinic you visit is invested in the future of the profession, that's the program in a nutshell. At Boreal Spine & Sport, training good clinicians and providing good care are the same project.

References

1. Kolb DA. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. 2nd ed. Pearson Education; 2015.
2. Frank JR, Snell LS, Cate OT, et al. Competency-based medical education: theory to practice. Med Teach. 2010;32(8):638-645.
3. Cook G, Burton L, Hoogenboom BJ, Voight M. Functional movement screening: the use of fundamental movements as an assessment of function. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2014;9(3):396-409.
4. Gabbett TJ. The training-injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? Br J Sports Med. 2016;50(5):273-280.