Physiotherapy Students’ Experiences about Ethical Situations Encountered in Clinical Practices

Abstract

(1) Background: It is important to explore the ethical situations that physiotherapy students encountered in their clinical practices. (2) Methods: Qualitative, explorative, descriptive study. The participants included third-year physiotherapy students. They had to write five narratives about ethical situations encountered in their clinical practices. Krippendorff’s method for qualitative content analysis was used to cluster units within the data to identify emergent themes. The study protocol was approved by the authors’ University Ethic Committee of Human Research (H1515588244257). (3) Result: 280 narratives were reported by 64 students (23.34 ± 4.20 years, 59% women). Eight categories were identified from the qualitative analysis of the data: (a) professional responsibility, (b) professional competence, (c), beneficence, (d) equality and justice, (e) autonomy, (f) confidentiality, (g) respect for privacy, and (h) sincerity. All participants were informed and provided written informed consent. (4) Conclusions: Ethical principles were frequently violated in physiotherapy. Experiences of physiotherapy students must be examined to tailor educational interventions prior to their initiation into practice. Ethics education is needed in workplaces and should be increased in basic education. Facilitating the ethical awareness of future physiotherapists is a challenge for university teachers who provide ethical competence training.