The “Ethic of Care” in Physical Therapy Practice and Education: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Numerous forces affect the development of caring relationships between health care practitioners and their patients. The purpose of this article is to use moral philosophy to elucidate and discuss care and caring as we explore what it means to practice an ethic of care in the physical therapy work environment. We discuss the importance of an ethic of care to physical therapy practice, the barriers to an ethic of care found in contemporary physical therapy work, and considerations for educators attempting to develop an ethic of care in physical therapy students. Though we recognize the difficulty in building and maintaining caring relationships with patients in the present health care environment, we believe health care dynamics necessitate that we combine scientific and moral knowledge with caring skills in order to discover forms of physical therapy practice that consider the patient first while achieving physical therapy outcomes.