Introduction
to Course
Welcome to this online continuing education course on
ethics for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants.
You should be able to complete this course in approximately two hours.
It will consist of lectures to be read that will include theoretical
content supplemented by case studies specific to physical therapists and
assistants. The case studies are
written based on actual or possible ethical dilemmas that you may face as a
physical therapist or as a physical therapist assistant.
All of the cases may not be directly pertinent to your practice, but as
you read them try to apply the ethical questions to situations that you might
face in your setting. Since
we work closely together in our practices, the cases that seemingly apply to
only physical therapist assistants or physical therapists should be of interest
to both groups because the ethical issues may affect both groups.
The course will not tell you what decisions you should make in specific
situations; rather it will provide you with some guidance in looking at ethical
dilemmas from an analytical perspective and not just from a gut reaction.
Do not dismiss that gut reaction, however, because it is often what gives
us some indication that there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
This course should provide you with some tools to help you be better
prepared to make ethical decisions based on analysis and reflection.
The goal of this course is to help raise your awareness of ethical issues
in the practice of physical therapy and to promote discussion of these issues
among your colleagues.
References for further study of health care ethics are
provided at the end of the course. You
should also be aware that the Texas Physical Therapy Association (TPTA) has a
Chapter Ethics Committee that is available for discussion of ethical concerns.
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) also has a Judicial
Committee that interprets ethical concerns specifically related to our Code of
Ethics and serves as an appeal board regarding ethical cases.
These two groups and their functions will be further described during
this course. At times throughout
this course references will be made to the Code of Ethics, Guide for
Professional Conduct, Standards of Ethical Conduct for the Physical Therapist
Assistant, and the Guide for Conduct of the Affiliate Member.
These documents are provided for you at the end of this course for easy
reference. Links to all of these
documents are also provided. Further,
you may always find these documents in the January issue of the APTA
publications or at www.apta.org.
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