WHAT IS THE PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN THE DEGREE?

Introduction:
Professional ethics has the purpose of developing analytical skills, critical thinking, decision making and ethical awareness. The ethical situations are present in the practice of Physiotherapy and it is necessary to face them from professional ethics. This is achieved with adequate education in values and ethical knowledge during the degree. Attitudes are deep psychological structures that are formed from the relationships that people maintain with their environment. They are defined as "predispositions learned to act in a favorable or unfavorable way in the face of an object, person (group) or situation." They are affective evaluations, that is, when a reality is perceived in a favorable way, it is a positive attitude towards it. So, in order to design the best teaching-learning model in professional ethics, it should be necessary to analyze how is the students’ attitude toward the study of professional ethics during the degree, that is, if students perceive the learning of this subject in a favorable or unfavorable way.

Purpose:
To identify the physiotherapy students’ attitudes towards professional ethics in the degree.

Method:
In order to analyze the Physiotherapy students’ attitude towards professional ethics, a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the University of Valencia during the 2017-2018 course with a sample of 69 students of 3rd and 4th course. All participants signed the informed consent. The inclusion criteria were: to be a degree student in Physiotherapy of 3rd or 4th year at the University of Valencia, and under 40 years of age. The the Questionnaire of attitudes towards professional ethics in Physiotherapy (CAEPFIS) was administered.

Results:
37 women and 32 men between 20-38 years, filled out the questionnaire. The average of participants' responses was 3.7 (0,2). Taking into account that the possibility of response ranged between 1 (very disagreement) and 5 (very much in agreement).

Conclusions:
Attitudes towards professional ethics are positive and show a remarkable interest of the physiotherapy students toward the subject. The results obtained are very favorable in order to design a formative model that allows them to practice the profession in a just, honest and responsible manner.