Physiotherapy Students' Experiences about Ethical Situations Encountered in Clinical Practices

Area of Science:

• Medical Ethics
• Physiotherapy Education
• Qualitative Research

Background:

• Ethical dilemmas are prevalent in physiotherapy clinical settings.
• Understanding student experiences is vital for effective training.
• Exploration of ethical situations faced by physiotherapy students is necessary.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore and analyze the ethical situations encountered by physiotherapy students during their clinical practice.
• To identify emergent themes and ethical principles involved in these situations.
• To inform the development of targeted educational interventions.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative, explorative, and descriptive study design was employed.
• Third-year physiotherapy students provided five written narratives each about ethical situations.
• Krippendorff's method of qualitative content analysis was used to identify themes.

Main Results:

• Sixty-four students reported 280 narratives detailing ethical challenges.
• Eight key ethical categories were identified: professional responsibility, competence, beneficence, equality/justice, autonomy, confidentiality, privacy, and sincerity.
• Analysis revealed frequent violations of ethical principles in practice.

Conclusions:

• Ethical principles are often compromised in physiotherapy practice.
• Student experiences underscore the need for improved ethics education in both basic training and workplaces.
• University educators face challenges in developing ethical competence in future physiotherapists.