Physical Therapy Ethical Challengesin Iran, A Qualitative Study

Physical therapy is one of the divisions of paramedical science that uses physical modalitiesto treat physicalmotor or neuromuscularimpairments. Physical therapists perform their job based on physicians' orders. Iranian medical schools do not offer any physiotherapy course to medical students therefore graduating general physicians are not very competent on the subject of physical therapy. On the other hand, universities of rehabilitation sciences also do not offer any courses in the subject of ethics in the field of physical therapy. The former and latter are the basis of several ethical gaps in the subject of rehabilitation medicine, which has caused confusion and distress among physiotherapists and patients. Therefore this following research has been designed and implemented for identifying these ethical gaps in the subject of physical therapy in Iran. Methodology of this research is qualitative in which method of interviewing with exerts for obtaining data was used and at the end data obtained were content analyzed and results were discussed in focused group discussions. dataacquired from this research included total of 60 propositions which were analyzed and categorized into four groups: 1) challenges regarding patients, 2)challenges regarding physician, 3)challenges regarding physical therapists, and 4)challenges regarding treatmentcenters. physical therapy is teamworkamong physician, physical therapist, and the patient. Physician must have reasonable knowledge regardingthe physical therapy. Physical therapist must be aware of his/her professional behavior along with ethical codes and patient should be aware of his/her rights and duties.