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Ethics for the Pennsylvania Physical Therapy Professional: Summary
Principle 8 Physical therapists shall participate in efforts to meet the health needs of people locally, nationally, or globally. Core Value: Social Responsibility MODELS AND CASE ANALYSIS Developmental model: Supervisee moves from the beginner stage (rigid and imitative style) through the intermediate and advanced (more competent style). Integrative model: Forces the supervisor to choose interventions geared to the needs of the supervisee above preferences regarding their comfort zone. Orientation model: Views client problems as learning problems requiring identification of the problem and selection of learning technique . Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic models: Therapist’s personal issues surface because of treatment they are administering. Transgenerational models: Past behavior patterns influence present and future patterns. CASE ANALYSIS 1: DR. ADAIR Dr. Adair, a distinguished neurosurgeon, was approached by an intern who challenged his decision to do surgery to relieve pressure after a football player had dislocated his left knee. The intern said that he understood the patient’s chart to say that he was a bleeder and special precautions had to be taken to do any surgery. Dr. Adair dismissed the intern’s concern and told the intern that he knew what he was doing and that the intern should mine his own business. The neurosurgeon continued to plan for the surgery just to prove the intern was wrong. However, he did review the patient’s chart, and in doing so, he found that the intern was correct. Now he had a decision to make between doing the right thing or protecting his pride and continuing with the surgery.
Rectifying the problem will be accomplished by going through the ethical decision-making process which will guide the intern to making the right decision, which is, of course, to consider other options for relieving the pressure in the injured knee. Humility will be part of the solution to this dilemma. CASE ANALYSIS 2: MARLENE QUINN Marlene Quinn had been assigned three PTs to supervise. The rules of the supervisory relationship were discussed with each PT. Full disclosure regarding each of the supervisees’ patient load and the therapy techniques were provided. Then Jane, one of the three PTs, shared that she had romantic feelings for one of her male patients. The other two supervisees told Jane it would be unethical for her to pursue it and that she needed to speak to Marlene regarding the situation. A week later, Jane shared with her two friends that the patient had invited her out for dinner, just on a casual basis. Significant points include the following: • The supervisee cannot become romantically involved with a patient. • When a situation arises such as what Jane was in, her first responsibility was to counsel with her supervisor, so that changes could be made in the patient load and so on. • The other two supervisees have the ethical responsibility to discuss the situation with Marlene if Jane would not.
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