Impact of an Online Program in Ethics in Physiotherapy

NCT ID: NCT05984225

Last Updated: 2023-08-14

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 126 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-01-01
• Study Completion Date: 2021-12-31

Brief Summary

Given the continuing ethical problems faced by physiotherapists, improving their students' ethical competence is relevant. The development of ethical decision-making skills is particularly important for students preparing to enter professional health careers like physiotherapy. According to the Bologna process, the education of physiotherapists includes the cultivation of relevant generic/transversal competencies, including ethical competence. To achieve this, diverse teaching, learning, assessment, and feedback strategies are necessary and helpful in facilitating the acquisition of these competencies.

The physiotherapist needs to carry out ethics efficiently through ethical reasoning and critical thinking to develop ethical decision-making abilities. Active learning methods allow us to get students to follow the highest ethical standards and successfully manage ethical situations in the workplace. Despite some studies showing physiotherapists have a deficit in clinical practice ethics.

However, there is a lack of research focusing on online learning (OL) physiotherapy ethics education, and studies of review on mixed health professionals many times do not include physiotherapy studies.

Considering this, the primary objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of an OL program in developing ethical competence in physiotherapy students. Specifically, the study aims to evaluate the impact of the program on generic competences, knowledge acquisition, ethical sensitivity, engagement, and instructional design within the OL environment.

Conditions

Ethics, Narrative

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Physiotherapy students

Physiotherapy students of the 2nd course of the Grade of Physiotherapy of the University of Valencia.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Online learning

Intervention Type: OTHER

The students performed a 10-week Online Learning (OL) program based on Professional Ethics. The program included:

1. Synchronous learning (1 session/week, 1 hour each).

2. Asynchronous learning: i) OL classes were recorded; ii) Moodle platform: for read breaking news, upload tasks or solve any doubt they may have through discussion forums; iii) An OL specific syllabus that consisted of five themes from the ethics knowledge; iv) An OL glossary, including the concept, explanation of the concept, and source; v) Bullet-point videos highlighting the most important issues of each theme; vi) Podcasts about Professional Ethics, Ethics in physiotherapy; vii) Links to websites; viii) Gamification using mobile Apps regarding ethical decision-making, healthcare, and Ethics or Professional Ethics, as well as an OL crossword; ix) OL activities were created and personalized comments about the activities were reported by the teachers to give feedback to the students.

Interventions

Online learning

The students performed a 10-week Online Learning (OL) program based on Professional Ethics. The program included:

1. Synchronous learning (1 session/week, 1 hour each).

2. Asynchronous learning: i) OL classes were recorded; ii) Moodle platform: for read breaking news, upload tasks or solve any doubt they may have through discussion forums; iii) An OL specific syllabus that consisted of five themes from the ethics knowledge; iv) An OL glossary, including the concept, explanation of the concept, and source; v) Bullet-point videos highlighting the most important issues of each theme; vi) Podcasts about Professional Ethics, Ethics in physiotherapy; vii) Links to websites; viii) Gamification using mobile Apps regarding ethical decision-making, healthcare, and Ethics or Professional Ethics, as well as an OL crossword; ix) OL activities were created and personalized comments about the activities were reported by the teachers to give feedback to the students.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• To be studying the Physiotherapy Degree at the University of Valencia.

Exclusion Criteria

• Not willing to participate.
• Students with previous ethics training.
• Not willing to provide the written consent.

• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Valencia

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

David Hernández-Guillén

Assistant professor, PT, PhD

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

David Hernández-Guillén, PT, PhD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

University of Valencia

Locations

Faculty of Physiotherapy of the University of Valencia

Valencia, , Spain

Countries

Spain

Other Identifiers

BL_ETHICS_01

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id