3 Ethics and Jurisprudence for the Indiana Physical Therapy Professional: Summary
The APTA Code of Ethics for the Physical Therapist and Guide for Professional Conduct The Guide for Professional Conduct (Guide) provides interpretation for some subsections of the APTA Code of Ethics for the Physical Therapist (Code) for professional conduct. The APTA House of Delegates in June of 2009 adopted a revised Code, which became effective on July 1, 2010, and was updated in 2019. The Guide provides a framework for physical therapists, assistants, and students with the focus on ethics and professional conduct. These guidelines are subject to change by the Ethics and Judicial Committee (EJC) as the dynamics of the profession change and new patterns of health care delivery are developed and accepted by the professional community and the public. The purposes of the Code of Ethics are to: 1. Define the ethical principles that form the foundation of physical therapist practice in patient/client management, consultation, education, research, and administration. 2. Provide standards of behavior and performance that form the basis of professional accountability to the public. 3. Provide guidance for physical therapists facing ethical challenges regardless of their professional roles and responsibilities. 4. Educate physical therapists, students, other health care professionals, regulators, and the public regarding the core values, ethical principles, and standards that guide the professional conduct of the physical therapist. 5. Establish the standards by which the American Physical Therapy Association can determine if a physical therapist has engaged in unethical conduct. The Code of Ethics for the Physical
• Informed consent : Informed consent is a process, not just a form. Information must be presented to enable persons to voluntarily decide whether to participate. It is a fundamental mechanism to ensure respect for persons through provision of thoughtful consent for a voluntary act. The procedures used in obtaining informed consent should be designed to educate the subject population in terms that they can understand. Therefore, informed consent language and its documentation must be written in lay language, that is, understandable to the people being asked to participate. The written presentation of information is used to document the basis for consent and for the subjects’ future reference. The consent document should be revised when deficiencies are noted or when additional information will improve the consent process. • Fiduciary duty : The responsibility to act in the best interest of a person or organization. • Personal bias : The action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing of personal opinions to influence. • Veracity : The principle that one should tell the truth, that honesty is the best policy. SCOPE OF PRACTICE & CODE OF ETHICS Scope of practice has three components: professional, jurisdictional, and personal. The professional scope of practice of physical therapy is defined as practice that is grounded in the profession’s unique body of knowledge, supported by educational preparation, based on a body of evidence, and linked to existing or emerging practice frameworks. APTA shall take the role as the primary organization for determining whether particular practices fall within the professional scope of practice of physical therapy. APTA shall prepare such determinations in collaboration with appropriate stakeholders. APTA shall also be a resource for stakeholders to address inquiries regarding jurisdictional and personal scope of practice for physical therapists.
Therapist Principles
The following information from the principles and subcategories of the APTA Code of Ethics has been summarized and should be viewed in its entirety on the APTA website contained on
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