Physiotherapy students willingness to report misconduct to protect the patient’s interests in chennai

Abstract

Backgroung: Applying the ethics in practice is more essential than just learning it. Any sought of misconduct to the patient is not just an ethical issue but it will also degrade the professionalism and it brings a sense of insecurity in patients and this will slow down the progress of treatment. So it is not only important to avoid the ethical issues and misconduct but it is also necessary to stand against ethical issues that happen within the organization that may done by colleagues or higher authorities without any dilemma. Objective: This study aims to find out the difficulties and dilemmas of the physiotherapist in ethical decision making and disclosing the misconduct of their colleagues without any hesitation. Methodology: A close ended questionnaire was used to assess the willingness of the student physiotherapist to expose the misconduct which might be an internal or external disclosure. The questionnaire consisted of two clinical scenarios which were most likely to arise in a work place. Each scenario consisted of 5 questions that rated the severity, likelihood of confronting, internal disclosure, external disclosure to the association and external disclosure to media. The scoring was based on five point likert scale. It was a study that was done with convenient sampling method. The questionnaire was given to 100 Physiotherapy students in Chennai of both the sexes who were willing to participate in the study. Result: From the statistical analysis, there is a significant difference obtained for the likelihood of reporting the manager’s misconduct than colleague’s misconduct. Also their willingness to report internally within the organization is greater than that of reporting externally to the association and to the media. Conclusion: Ethics being a part of Physiotherapy curriculum, these students have well understood the ethical and professional behavior and have good ethical acceptance. Hence we conclude that the students do understand the seriousness of any misconduct of a therapist to the patient and are willing to expose any misconduct they encounter to the internal or external environment.