Jayden Emberton-Gaines

Exercise Leadership

Code of Ethics

11/2/2018

Code of Ethics for Physical Therapist

A Code of Ethics is ethical principles that form the foundation of the physical therapy

practice pertaining to patient and client management, consultation, education, research and

administration. It also provides the standards of behavior and performance in the physical

therapist field of work. The Code of Ethics is meant to provide guidance through different

challenges faced, educate about the professional conduct of a PT, and establish standard that the

APTA can determine unethical conduct by.

I learned from reading this document that the Code of Ethics by the APTA has multiple

principles that are designed to be followed by physical therapist. There is a total of 8 principles,

the principles are like statements of what characteristics a physical therapist should have. Each

of the principles have core values connected to them. There are 7 core values used and spread

out among the 8 principle, those core values are accountability, altruism, compassion/caring,

excellence, integrity, professional duty, and social responsibility.

Some principles that really stuck out to me happened to be Principle #1: Physical

therapists shall respect the inherent dignity and rights of all individuals; Principle #7: Physical

therapists shall promote organizational behaviors and business practices that benefit patients/

clients and society; and Principle #8: Physical therapists shall participate in efforts to meet the

health needs of people locally, nationally, or globally. These were the most eye opening and real
principles that I read, something I totally agree with as far as taking it into the Physical Therapy

practice.

The three previous principles, 1, 7, and 8 have core values associated with them. The

core values a include social responsibility, integrity, accountability, and compassion. I think

these are things that I will bring with me into my physical therapy career with ease. I believe in

my daily life as a student athlete I demonstrate some of these core values. I believe the core

values I demonstrate the most happen to be accountability, compassion, as well as integrity. I

have demonstrated accountability in sports and academics throughout my life, I have shown to

be compassionate about those things and people that I love, and I have also been known to be a

man of integrity by many of my loved ones and peers. With all these core values being things I

have already practiced in my lifetime, I do not think it will be difficult to continue to be

accountable, compassionate and a man of integrity in my professional career as a physical

therapist.

In conclusion, the Code of Ethics for the Physical Therapist taught me a lot about the

expectations and requirements to remain an ethical in the physical therapy work field. Although

it looks like a lot, most of what is required by the APTA are things that are common sense and

expected by many professionals, not only physical therapist. The principles and core values

stood out the most to me in the code of ethics and they are things that I believe I will be able to

uphold in a professional setting on a daily basis. There is a very good chance that physical

therapy will be my career choice in life and after reading the code of ethics in physical therapist I

can’t help but be excited to help others during my profession.