Teaching ethics and professionalism in rehabilitation: an empirical research on active learning with university rehabilitation students.

Abstract

Teaching ethics in university courses may benefit from different didactic approaches; nonetheless, it still seems unclear whether ethics teaching can be best offered in stand-alone courses or integrated into other courses, or perhaps both. We describe the experience derived from a structured teaching activity in the field of medical ethics, conducted during a lesson for the students of a rehabilitation university second-cycle degree course. The participating students were healthcare professionals with different graduate training in rehabilitation. The aim of the lesson was to discuss the essentials of the relationship between patients and rehabilitation healthcare providers, from an inter-professional viewpoint, focused on the principles of trust, mutual respect, power and personal closeness, which are essential components of the therapeutic relationship between patients and physical therapists. Shared moral norms guiding the professional conduct of healthcare professionals are a fundamental characteristic of these professions, promoting the public trust in these professions, tearing down barriers to inter-professional collaboration and communication. The results are remarkable, and there has been very positive feedback from the students concerning the production of the oath and its contents, as well as about the proposed teaching method, resulting in great interest in clinical ethics.