6 Ethics and Jurisprudence for the Indiana Physical Therapy Professional: Summary
• Altruism is the primary regard for or devotion to the interest of patients/clients, thus assuming the fiduciary responsibility of placing the needs of the patient/client ahead of the physical therapist’s self-interest. • Collaboration is working together with patients and clients, families, communities, and professionals in health and other fields to achieve shared goals. Collaboration within the physical therapist-physical therapist assistant team is working together, within each partner’s respective role, to achieve optimal physical therapist services and outcomes for patients and clients. • Compassion and Caring is the desire to identify with or sense something of another’s experience—a precursor of caring. Caring is the concern, empathy, and consideration for the needs and values of others. • Duty is the commitment to meeting one’s obligations to provide effective physical therapist services to patients and clients, to serve the profession, and to positively influence the health of society. • Excellence includes understanding personal limits, integrating judgment and the patient/ client perspective, embracing advancement, challenging mediocrity, and working toward development of new knowledge. • Inclusion occurs when the physical therapist and physical therapist assistant create a welcoming and equitable environment for all. Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants are inclusive when they commit to providing a safe space, elevating diverse and minority voices, acknowledging personal biases that may impact patient care, and taking a position of anti-discrimination. • Integrity is steadfast adherence to high ethical principles or professional standards: truthfulness, fairness, doing what you say you will do, and speaking forth about why you do what you do. • Social responsibility is the promotion of a mutual trust between the profession and the larger public that necessitates responding to societal needs for health and wellness.
school, social functions, children’s activities, or recreational settings, for example. Decision- making strategies will be discussed in the next section, but there are a few considerations when identifying dual and multiple relationships and potential harm to patients. The therapist must consider the following: • The therapist must decide if the relationship could impair judgment, objectivity, or effectiveness in treatment or attaining the patient’s health goals. This includes the ability of the patient to follow the treatment plan and retain autonomy. • Could the therapist lose his or her objectivity, which would interfere with his or her ability to perform duties as a therapist? • The therapist must decide if the relationship would be exploitive or harmful to the patient. • When thinking about the potential for harm or exploitation, the therapist might consider whether any reasonable professional therapist would enter into the relationship in question. If there is any doubt, the relationship should be avoided. • The therapist should consider whether the relationship promotes the health and welfare of the client and improves the collaborative, active participation in the patient’s care plan. If there is any doubt that the relationship will promote the patient’s health and welfare, including emotional health, the relationship should not continue. • A final consideration is whether the outcome of the relationship would promote trust between the profession and the public at large. If the public knew of the relationship, would it be viewed in a positive way? APTA Core Values The decisions about relationships can be informed directly by the APTA core values: • Accountability is active acceptance of the responsibility for the diverse roles, obligations, and actions of the physical therapist, including self-regulation and other behaviors that positively influence patient/ client outcomes, the profession, and the health needs of society.
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