California physician's professional image of therapists

The purpose of this study was to identify the attitudes of California physicians toward the professional image of physical therapists and to determine the influence of several independent variables on that image. A three-part questionnaire was used to survey the sample of physicians. The first two sections contained attitudinal statements based on criteria representing degrees of professionalism; the third section contained questions on demographic variables. The results indicated that, although the majority of responding physicians viewed physical therapists as possessing all of the criteria denoting professionalism, there was relatively less agreement with the two criteria representing the highest degrees of professionalism-evaluative skills and autonomy of judgment. None of the independent variables influenced physicians' professional image of physical therapists except physician specialty area, in which family practitioners held a significantly higher professional image of physical therapists than did neurosurgeons and orthopedists. The authors suggest further study of other factors that may affect physicians' professional image of physical therapists as well as recommend steps that may be taken to improve the professional image of physical therapists.