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Physical Therapy Ethics Paper

794 Words4 Pages

No matter what profession you pursue, there is a high probability of encountering actions of your co-workers that you may not agree with. This holds true for the profession of physical therapy. I am a 3rd year physical therapy student working at a physical therapy clinic and witnessed that they focus more of their labor force on one group of patients over the other despite the similar injuries. This paper will give you my moral, legal and ethical perspective as well as what I would do in the scenario. From a moral point of view, every patient that comes through the door of the clinic should be treated the same regardless of their socioeconomic status. As practicing healthcare professionals, we have an obligation to treat our patients to the …show more content…

Although there are no obvious rules that are being broken, the physical therapist is performing a form of negligence. Handing off the less affluent patient to either the PTA or I is acceptable only if the physical therapist in charge of their care is constantly checking in with the them and making changes to their treatment plan accordingly. Having little to no communication or receiving the progress of the patient solely from the PTA or I is unacceptable for a physical therapist as they are not actively involved in the care of the patient. Another factor that comes into play is whether or not the PTA or I are experienced enough to handle the patient that we have been assigned to work with. The patient might present with a complex history of low back pain or excruciating pain to the point where we don’t have the knowledge to take on treating the …show more content…

The code of ethics for physical therapists help define the ethical responsibility that is required by all physical therapists. The physical therapist is breaking several principles listed in the code of ethics. Principle 1 states that all “physical therapists shall respect the inherit dignity and rights of all individuals.” In other words, the physical therapist should respect and treat each patient equally regardless of their socioeconomic status. I witnessed the less affluent patients being treated by either a PTA or I with only a couple of visits while a senior physical therapist tends to treat the affluent patients, receiving more attention and visits. Justice, one of the universal ethical principles, ties in well with this ethical argument since it means to treat patients equally and to be fair. Principle 2A states that “physical therapists shall adhere to the core values of the profession and act in the best interest of the patient over the interest of the physical therapist.” The physical therapist is acting in their own interest as they are only looking at ways to make profit and not caring about the quality of care they are providing for their patients. Principle 8 states that “physical therapists shall be responsible of healthcare resources and shall avoid overutilization or underutilization of physical therapy.” As mentioned before, the

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