Ethics, Laws, and Rules for Tennessee Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants – 2nd Edition

Course Description

Course Description:

Physical therapists use ethics to examine issues and human behaviors based on values. Ethics involves making decisions about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and otherwise providing a justification for an ethical decision (Doherty & Purtilo, 2016). Because clinical judgments are value laden, ethics figures strongly in the professional lives of physical therapy practitioners. Across all practice, educational, and research settings, physical therapy practitioners face issues that involve ethical questions. To navigate ethical issues, physical therapy practitioners in Tennessee need to be knowledgeable and skilled in ethical decision making. They need to understand their ethical and legal responsibilities under the APTA Code of Ethics for Physical Therapists (APTA, 2020a), the APTA Standards of Ethical Conduct for the Physical Therapist Assistant (2020b), and Tennessee’s physical therapy practice act, which is found under Tennessee Code Title 63, Chapter 13, Occupational and Physical Therapy Practice Act (State of Tennessee, 2020; Tennessee Board of Physical Therapy, n.d.).

Although ethics education has recently become better integrated into physical therapy education, many educators believe that increasing professional autonomy and independence in clinical decision making and judgments have left physical therapists facing increasingly complex ethical issues, creating a gap between ethics knowledge and practice (Delaney et al., 2010).

This intermediate-level course provides an updated primer on the study of ethics and ethical behaviors as they apply to physical therapy practice, as well as updated information on relevant Tennessee laws and rules.