About the School of Chiropractic and Sports Science
"If students find out that a particular direction is not for them, it’s our job to help move them in the direction they want to be heading in. Everybody needs to have passion for what they do."
- Brian Nook, Dean, School of Chiropractic and Sports Science
We asked our Dean to share some short thoughts on what makes the School of Chiropractic and Sports Science unique.
Brian Nook, tell us about...
- The most important thing for your staff to value:
"We value professionalism – in dealings with each other, our students and our patients or clients. We run a student-centric healthcare program teaching students to be patient-centric. A patient needs to have confidence in their health care provider, whether it’s through sports science, physiotherapy or chiropractics. That underpins everything we do."
- The one thing students should graduate from the school with:
"From orientation through the whole program we teach, I like to use a model I call CCCP. We need students to develop and demonstrate commitment to the program they choose to study, competence and confidence – and a passion for whatever it is they want to do."
- How chiropractic health is changing the way we manage our health:
"Everybody needs to be able to perform at their peak in sport, at work, in their studies – regardless of what they do. Health care tends to focus on the times when we’re not healthy, but we focus on prevention and performance. We work to try to keep people well, to catch things early or before they start to cause problems."
- Your experiences at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Salt Lake City:
"Being American, Olympic Games are all about winning gold medals – and I think Australia has the same kind of focus. But at the Barcelona Games in 1992, I learned that the Olympics are actually about personal performance.
There was a Zimbabwean swimmer – his back seized up the day before he was due to swim in the 100m freestyle quarter finals. His GP called me, he couldn’t give the swimmer anything because all the usual drugs were on the banned substances list. So I worked on the swimmer’s back – and the next day he came back jumping up and down after his race. He’d finished last, but he told me he didn’t go for the medal. He’d led in the first lap of the race, he’d achieved his personal best time, he’d set a national record for his country – and he’d had a great time. That was all much more important to him than a medal – it really meant something to me."
- How providing chiro services at events like Southbound helps students develop professional skills:
"This kind of experience allows for students to apply their skills to real problems and real patients. It helps to keep students grounded, getting through the rough and hard stuff. If students work with people with common problems, they can do anything."
- How the Sports Science course prepares graduates for work:
"When we were first looking at launching the course, we held a think tank with a range of sports professionals. From there, we designed the course content around their responses, so our students get the skills and experience to directly meet industry needs."
- The career opportunities available to Sports Science graduates:
"We encourage our students to take a double major, whether it’s in business, education, marketing, to take advantage of a range of opportunities. These could be from club level to a professional level, or work for the government in sports and recreation. We’re also looking to tap new opportunities in the mining and resource sector because there’s a growing demand for prevention and performance health care in this area."
