Ethical Issues In Physical Therapy

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As physical therapist assumes a role in direct access and primary care, appropriate skills are ought to be demonstrated during diagnostic process (Goodman & Synder,2013). Physical therapy supports the approach of incorporating health care promotion, disease prevention, and intervention or rehabilitation for efficient health care delivery (World Confederation for Physical Therapist, n.d.). The American Physical Therapy Association is extending its role in preventive care through education and appropriate guidance designed to prevent or delay progression of a disease (American Physical Therapy Association. (n.d.). Screening is an example of preventive care performed by physical therapist. Physical therapist as human movement experts can prevent …show more content…
Early detection has effectively decreased morbidity and mortality for several diseases (Delatycki, 2012). However, over-diagnosis or under-diagnosis as a result of screening has brought various ethical issues. The risk of looking arduously or superficially for illnesses in healthy people may cause harm, increase health care costs, and psychological damages. Consequently, our obligation to the ethical principles to do no harm and to prevent or remove harm has become a …show more content…
At the outpatient facility where I use to work, I had a 40-year-old, female patient who I was treating for carpal tunnel syndrome. I gathered from my patient interview that she is a smoker, has a familial history of osteoporosis, and had a prophylactic unilateral oophorectomy one years ago due to benign cysts. These risk factors are considered to predict the chances of developing osteoporosis (Morrison, n.d.). To address this concern, I advised my patient to ask her primary care physician about screening for osteoporosis to rule out the risks of developing this condition. Although, the patient was willing to undergo screening, she was anxious of the cost for this process as she is still financially recovering from the cost of her previous surgery. Currently, osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment is not reimbursed by insurance, thus the underprivileged, susceptible individuals are less likely to undergo preventive interventions (Mithal & Ebeling,