Ethics, Laws, and Rules, for Hawaii Physical Therapists, Updated

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 and problems, physical therapy practitioners in Hawaii should be well versed in the knowledge and skills of 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 the Hawaii state practice act. Hawaii’s physical therapy practice act is under HRS §461(Hawaii Physical Therapy Practice Act, 2015).  Although ethics education has become better integrated into physical therapy education over the past decade, many endorse that ethical decision-making requires more skill than simply following a code of ethics in the physical therapy profession since the professional duties are linked to social exception of ethical behavior as well. Many also believe that entry level education was not perceived to be sufficient enough on a world scale for physical therapy, requiring multiple sources for learning to develop an ethical decision-making framework. (Sturm et al., 2023)  This intermediate-level course provides physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in Hawaii with an updated primer on the study of ethics and ethical behaviors as they apply to physical therapy practice and updated information on Hawaii laws and rules governing physical therapy practice.