Tay Pei Shen graduated with a chiropractic degree from International Medical University (IMU) in 2017. She is currently a full-time chief resident and lecturer at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic and lectures part-time at IMU, as well as a consultant for chiropractors in Malaysia and New Zealand. She is also the first Malaysian Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Radiology (DACBR). Here, she relates her journey on how she became a DACBR.
My humble journey started one ordinary weekday evening when I was working as a chiropractor at IMU Chiropractic Centre. An elderly lady was brought in by her son following a fall and was unable to move her arm. I decided to refer her to IMU Medical Clinic for x-rays of her shoulder. Unfortunately, there was no radiologist on site in the evening, so I had to write a referral letter to an orthopaedic specialist. Being a fresh graduate with minimal exposure to medical referrals, I gathered up my confidence to write up a referral letter for a posterior shoulder dislocation – which is not a common presentation of a shoulder dislocation.
Since then, I decided to pursue the residency in diagnostic imaging to earn a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Radiology (DACBR) certification to be a chiropractic radiologist who can confidently analyse x-rays and other advanced imaging such as MRI. With the help of my previous chiropractic radiologist lecturer, Dr Kenneth Reckelhoff, I was introduced to the residency programme in New Zealand College of Chiropractic (NZCC), the only chiropractic programme in the southern hemisphere that offers this opportunity. I was told from the beginning that this journey will be a long one and it was very true!
It all started in 2017 where I wrote an email to Dr John Bassano, the residency director of NZCC, to enquire about the requirements needed to enter this residency programme: First I needed to be a registered chiropractor in New Zealand, then pass the residency exam and interview.
And so the adventure towards my goal began, I started preparing for the Council of Chiropractic Education Australasia (CCEA) board exam in order to be registered and practice as a chiropractor in New Zealand. I was lucky to have a senior to guide me and friends to take the board exam with me. After passing my CCEA boards, I travelled to NZCC in 2019 for my residency exam and interview.
It was perfect timing when I was accepted and managed to slip my way into New Zealand to start the residency right before the pandemic started in early 2020.
