Article

Ethical practice is an essential competency for occupational and
physical therapists. However, rehabilitation educators have few points of
reference for choosing appropriate pedagogical and evaluation methods related to
ethics. The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify priority content to
cover in ethics teaching in occupational therapy (OT)
and physical therapy (PT)
programmes and (2) explore useful and innovative teaching and evaluation methods.
METHOD: Data for this qualitative descriptive study were collected during a 1-d
knowledge exchange workshop focused on ethics teaching in rehabilitation.
RESULTS: Twenty-three educators from 11 OT and 11 PT Canadian programmes
participated in the workshop. They highlighted the importance of teaching
foundational theoretical/philosophical approaches and grounding this teaching in
concrete examples drawn from rehabilitation practice. A wide range of teaching
methods was identified, such as videos, blogs, game-based simulations and
role-play. For evaluation, participants used written assignments, exams,
objective structured clinical examinations and reflective journals. The inclusion
of opportunities for student self-evaluation was viewed as important. CONCLUSION:
The CREW Day provided ethics educators the opportunity to share knowledge and
begin creating a community of practice. This space for dialogue could be expanded
to international rehabilitation ethics educators, to facilitate a broader network
for sharing of tacit and experiential knowledge. Implications for Rehabilitation
According to the study participants, rehabilitation ethics education should
include learning about foundational knowledge related to ethical theory; be
grounded in examples and cases drawn from clinical rehabilitation practice; and
contribute to building professional competencies such as self-knowledge and
critical thinking in students. Regardless of the methods used by occupational
therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) educators for teaching and evaluation, the
value of creating spaces that support open discussion for students (e.g.
protected discussion time in class, peer-discussions with the help of a
facilitator, use of a web discussion forum) was consistently identified as an
important facet. Educators from OT and PT programmes should work with various
professionals involved in OT and PT student training across the curricula (e.g.
clinical preceptors, other educators) to extend discussions of how ethics can be
better integrated into the curriculum outside of sessions specifically focused on
ethics. The CREW Day workshop was the first opportunity for Canadian
rehabilitation ethics educators to meet and discuss their approaches to teaching
and evaluating ethics for OT and PT students. Including international
rehabilitation ethics educators in this dialogue could positively expand on this
initial dialogue by facilitating the sharing of tacit and experiential knowledge
amongst a larger and more diverse group of ethics educators.

Langue : ANGLAIS