Facilitating Ethical Reasoning in Student Physical Therapists

The literature surrounding the teaching of ethics in physical therapy lags behind that in nursing and medicine. Yet, in everyday practice, physical therapists are required to make decisions based on ethical reasoning in such areas as telling the truth to patients, gaining informed consent, prioritization, and rationing of care. Decisions based on ethical reasoning are often challenging to clinicians, raising the question, “How can the necessary decision-making skills be acquired?” This article considers the rationale and delivery of an undergraduate ethics program at the University of Southampton in England. The course has been designed to facilitate ethical reasoning with student physical therapists and occupational therapists throughout their training. To illustrate the use of decision-making skills, two sessions from this ethics program are described (on resources and informed consent). The article concludes with a reflection on the experience of teaching strategies to facilitate ethical reasoning.