Life-views of Physiotherapy Students Compared to Medical and Nursing Students

Abstract

Summary A life-view is an overall view of man and the world, forming a central value system and giving expression to a fundamental attitude. Research has shown that life-views are established early in childhood, are influenced by social environment and are relatively constant over time. An individual's view of life determines the response to reality and influences decision-making and treatment of other people. The aim of this study was to compare life-views and ethical standpoints of physiotherapy, nursing and medical students at the beginning of their professional education. All physiotherapy students beginning their education at Lund University during 1996 to 1998 answered a questionnaire developed by Josephsson (1994) , in total 187 students. The life-views of the physiotherapy students were compared with those of 385 medical students from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and 36 student nurses from Lulea University who answered the same questionnaire, which required them to indicate their agreement or otherwise with statements reflecting different life-views. The result showed that all student groups had high or moderate levels of agreement with the sentences reflecting a religious and evolutionary life-view and low agreement with a scientific life-view in Josephsson's terms. When comparing the groups, medical students had the lowest and nursing students the highest agreement with the religious life-view. Physiotherapy students had the highest agreement with the evolutionary life-view. No significant differences were noted between physiotherapy and nursing students in religious, scientific or evolutionary life-views. Women had higher agreements than men with the religious life-view. Men had higher agreements than women with the scientific and evolutionary life-view. No significant differences were noted in life-views between younger and older students within any student group. All student groups were patient-centred in their opinions on clinical ethical questions.