Physical therapists face complex ethical dilemmas in their professional practice (Loeb, 2014). In order to ensure that physical therapists exercise ethical practice, a code of ethics pertaining to their profession has been created (Loeb, 2014). The American Physical Therapy Association developed a specific code of ethics for physical therapists to follow: Physical therapist’s will respect the dignity and rights of all individuals, show trustworthiness and compassion, display accountability for their judgments, and demonstrate integrity in their relationships (Loeb, 2014). These guidelines will assist a physical therapist in resolving an ethical dilemma. H. Anshutz stated that he frequently comes to a difficult, ethical decision in which therapy may no longer be appropriate for the …show more content…
Therefore, the importance of values must not be underrated. H. Anshutz identified compassion and altruism as two examples of values he implements in his practice (personal communication, April 13, 2018). Compassion encompasses treating your patients with high quality evidence based care, and demonstrating empathy towards each patient (H. Anshutz, personal communication, April 13, 2018). Altruism is when a healthcare professional puts the needs of their patients first (H. Anshutz, personal communication, April 13, 2018). Additional values for a physical therapist include advocacy, cultural competence, and safety (Guenther, McGinnis, Romen, & Patel, 2014). Advocacy is the protection of another’s rights, cultural competence includes awareness of cultural differences, and safety is preventing harm. These values can be challenged frequently with patients due to individualized reasons, however maintaining these values are key in providing effective, patient centered care (H. Anshutz, personal communication, April 13,
It is important as a professional health care provider to have guidelines, regulations, and ethical standards to obey when providing care to the public. The ACA is to improve the quality of professional counselors in the community with education, knowledge, and guidelines by providing an ACA Code of Ethics standard when delivering treatment toward a clientele (American Counseling Association, 2015). One particular part of the ACA mission that is essential, is the ACA Code of Ethics. The purpose of the ACA Code of Ethics is a guide to ensure counselors in training and professional counselors understand the ethical obligations toward clients, possible grievances for conduct unbecoming, and professional responsibilities, which supports the ACA
The APTA code of ethics clearly defines the goals and ethical principles of the organization. It provides an ethical guidance for all physical therapists, and prevents them from taking advantage of their patient/client. It encourages the physical therapist to seek additional advice or consultation in instances where the guidance of the Code of Ethics may not be definitive. This Code of Ethics is built upon the five roles of the physical therapist, which include management of patients/clients, consultation, education, research, and administration, and the multiple realms of ethical action, which include individual, organizational, and societal. Physical therapist practice is guided by a set of seven core values: accountability, altruism, compassion/caring, excellence, integrity, professional duty, and social responsibility. The physical therapists have a special obligation to empower, educate, and enable those with impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions, and disabilities to facilitate greater independence, health, wellness, and enhanced quality of life. The eight princi...
Physician-assisted suicide refers to the physician acting indirectly in the death of the patient -- providing the means for death. The ethics of PAS is a continually debated topic. The range of arguments in support and opposition of PAS are vast. Justice, compassion, the moral irrelevance of the difference between killing and letting die, individual liberty are many arguments for PAS. The distinction between killing and letting die, sanctity of life, "do no harm" principle of medicine, and the potential for abuse are some of the arguments in favor of making PAS illegal. However, self-determination, and ultimately respect for autonomy are relied on heavily as principle arguments in the PAS issue.
Ethics in the counselling and psychotherapy protects the client and the therapist involved in the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic process as a whole; with the concepts that act as a guide for the therapists in provision of good practice and care for the client. The framework is built on values of counselling and psychotherapy; principles of trustworthiness, autonomy, fidelity, justice, beneficence, non-maleficence and self-respect, and provides standards of good practice and care for the practitioner (BACP, 2010). Ethical framework contributes to the development of the therapeutic relationship and process by assisting therapist’s decisions, and guides their behaviour and proceedings within their legal rights and duties. The ethical frame is structured on the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship and the therapists should be aware of their categories and be responsible for their forms. Monitoring and being aware of what goes on in and out of the room physically, emotionally and psychologically is primarily the duty of the therapist.
Physical Therapist (PT), are skilled health care practitioners that aim to improve movement, reduce pain and increase patient enjoyment of life. All while providing moral, legal and ethical care to patients. However, each of these requirements of practice are dictated by different entities. Meaning, that the requirements sometimes may or may not correlate with one another. Legally, therapist must abide by both state and national laws that are put in place for all health care professionals, in addition to those specific to the field of Physical Therapy. Whereas, ethical responsibilities may be dictated by the professional organizations and society norms. While morals vary according to different cultures and subcultures, making them specific
In the first in the series of articles the author, K.S. Peer, introduced the works and briefly discussed the ethical challenges faced by clinicians to fulfill the role of being a health care provider in an ever-changing environment that is sports medicine. Health care providers, namely athletic trainers, must know where they stand in the realm of ethical decision making in sports medicine (Peer, 2017). Health care professionals have long been expected to practice while keeping patient needs first and all the while put forth continuing education to allow for continued aptitude in an ever-changing environment. (Peer) To achieve the necessary knowledge and abilities that are essential to being able to provide athletes with most relevant care,
As an aspiring Occupational Therapist, I feel that it is incredibly important to have a strong set of values. I believe that this is important because, by understanding my own values and beliefs I can most appropriately respect and understand those of the people around me. As an Occupational Therapist, I will need to have a specific understanding of my client’s values and beliefs and well as other professionals. I will need to do that to assure that I am working most effectively with those individuals. The core of all my beliefs have to do with helping people live their lives to the greatest potential possible. I believe that everyone has activities that they find hard to do, and often avoid doing them. As an Occupational Therapist I want to
Professionalism is an adherence to a set of values comprising both a formally agreed-upon code of conduct and the informal expectations of colleagues, clients and society. The key values include acting in a patient's interest, responsiveness to the health needs of society, maintaining the highest standards of excellence in the practice of medicine and in the generation and dissemination of knowledge. In addition to medical knowledge and skills, medical professionals should present psychosocial and humanistic qualities such as caring, empathy, humility and compassion, as well as social responsibility and sensitivity to people's culture and beliefs. All these qualities are expected of members of highly trained professions.
There are several professional values that a nurse must possess altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and social justices are among these. Altruism is being concerned for the well-being and welfare of others; this includes their patients and colleagues. This is demonstrated daily through understanding cultural differences, considering the perspectives of others and mentoring others
This type of ethical dilemma is common in physical therapy since many of the treatments involve patients to actively participate in the treatment instead of just passively receiving treatments as in surgery or massage therapy. According to a study done by UK National Health service, out of 361 physical and occupational therapists, only around one- third of them reported no ethical dilemma in the past six months (Barnitt, 1998). I...
Compassion and Caring: One of the most important aspects of providing therapy is to have a compassion and caring manner towards each patient. Creating a friendly environment for each person receiving therapy is an important part of patient centered care. One
Their main focus is to represent the interests of all registered occupational therapists across the country by providing them with support and promote them as a key feature in the health system (11). The achievement of the highest quality patient care, along with the way occupational therapist conduct themselves is governed highly by the occupational therapy Australia's code of ethics (also known as ethos) Although no legally binding, the code states the manner in which practicing occupational therapists must conduct themselves in a way that firstly does not discriminate against any client's position in society, and further more requires them to perform their professional duties in and ethically and responsible way (6) Patient safety is an issue covered widely by the code of ethics, ad can be defined as the prevention of harm to patients in all respects. To allow the clients to feel a sense of safety, whilst ultimately providing them effective care, an element of trust must exist between client and professional. This element of trust stems mainly from the 'Relationships with, and responsibilities to patients and clients' (6) section of the code of ethics. This particular section highlights the importance of confidentiality with patients information, along with the important notion of respecting the patient's rights in all areas.thsi governs
Working in health care is an important job. People put their trust in us to do our very best to provide them with the absolute best care. Being entrusted with such responsibility requires nurses to conduct themselves both professionally and ethically. Nurses must adhere to the professional values of human dignity, integrity, autonomy, altruism, and social justice. It is these five values that guide us in our practice and as nurses we must promote and emulate these values. They play an important role in the quality of treatment and success of an organization and help us determine right from wrong.
I think it is important that I clarify my own values to ensure that my care is client-centered. Self- reflection during care is also fundamental as it makes me aware of my actions and whether they are establishing a therapeutic relationship or doing the opposite.. Finally, I need to learn to be more empathetic towards my patient’s situations by being interactive, gaining insight and avoid being focused on the task and more on being with the situation. Some things that I will preserve are attentively listening, demonstrating attending behaviours and maintaining my patient’s dignity by ensuring privacy and
Ethical issues in a counseling practice lay the foundation of a therapist in practice. Ethics are at the center of how the counseling process functions and operates in a successful manner for the clients who seek help in such a setting. In order for the counseling profession to be ethical and hold professional recognition, there are many facets that need to be examined and outlined to make sure all counselors and practitioners are functioning at the highest level and withholding their duties required by the counseling profession. The first introduction so to speak of the area of ethics also happens to be one of the first steps in counseling, which is the informed consent. The informed consent provides the basis of what happens or will be happening in a counseling setting and serves to inform the client to their rights, responsibilities, and what to expect. Most importantly, the informed consent is in place for the client’s benefit. It also is important to understand that culture and environment play a role in the treatment of a client and how theories can positively or negatively impact this treatment. Therapists need to understand how to work within the context of a theory while being able to understand the individual in their own environment. Although theories are put into place to serve as a framework, there are also alternative ways to approach counseling, one example being evidence-based practice. Such an approach is very specific, which presents a series of solutions for counseling as a whole, but also brings forth many problems. Every approach or theory introduces ethical concerns that need to be taken into consideration by the entire counseling community and how each can positively and negatively affect clients and the pr...