Publication:

Professionalism as a core value of postgraduate physiotherapy students of Ahmedabad: a cross sectional survey

Background Professionalism is defined by the Chartered Society Of Physiotherapy (CSP) as “the qualities, skills, competence and behaviors expected of individuals belonging to any given profession including physiotherapy.” The number of physiotherapy students in India is increasing. Moreover, with the advent of modern technology and commercialism, there is a rising threat to the therapist-patient relationship as well as compromise in the ethical commitment to the field due to stiff competition in the market. Hence, it is essential that the standard of practice should be maintained and should be improvised. The purpose of this study is to find the perceived level of professionalism of post graduate physiotherapy students.

Methods The cross-sectional survey was done via APTA’S ‘Professionalism In Physical Therapy: Core Values. There are 7 core values with 69 indicators; total score is 345. It has been validated and used previously in India. 100 students were included; 67, 1st year & 33, 2nd year post graduate physiotherapy students of Ahmedabad through convenience sampling. Analysis was done in Microsoft excel 2013.

Results The mean scores for the core values were as follows: Accountability:40.53±6.37/50; Altruism: 17.98+3.78/25; Compassion/Caring: 43.65±6.62/55; Excellence: 44.01±6.73/55; Integrity: 43.69±6.16/60; Professional Duty: 28.67±4.70/35; Social responsibility: 45.84±7.64/60.

Conclusions Physiotherapy PG students had overall high scores in the core values. Further research is required to understand the current scenario so that appropriate changes can be made in the curriculum and strategies can be formulated for high quality patient care.