Perception Of Physical Therapist Of Lahore Regarding Ethical Issues In Clinical Practice; A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Ethics are broad range of thinking about expressional interdependence behaviors of human being and about situational balance between right and wrong as moral duty. Objective: The purpose of this study was to figure out ethical issues in clinical practice of physical therapy practice. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at various clinical setups in Lahore enrolling practicing physical therapists via non-probability convenience sampling technique. A sample of 249 physical therapists was extracted using sample size calculator (Confidence interval 95%). Participants were selected on the basis of inclusion criteria and responses were recorded using self-structured questionnaire whose content validity was assessed using Lynn, M.R (1986) method. The questionnaire consisted of set of opinions regarding multidimensional aspects of ethics in patient care. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. The analysis was based on descriptive statistics such as frequency percentages and measures of central tendency and standard deviation. The multiple responses were calculated regarding collective opinions. Results: Demographics of the participants were expressed in frequency and percentages. The results showed that professional ethics were learned by 174(70.7%) respondents during physical therapy course, by 38 (15.4%) via internet and by 34(13.8%) by other sources.  On average, most of the responses regarding awareness, obligation and inter-professional relationship were reported as moderate to minimum. Conclusions: The study concluded that perception and opinions of physical therapists regarding ethical issues garnered only moderate to minimum concern about clinical practice. However, they identified a huge gap and lack of coordination with other health professional in clinical facility.