Ethics topics in undergraduate physiotherapy curricula at South African universities: A document analysis

Background: Physiotherapy practice, professional autonomy, technological advancements, and the complexity of health and social systems require that undergraduate physiotherapy curricula include suitable ethics topics that equip students with knowledge, skills and attitudes in ethics. Little is known about ethics topics covered across the South African physiotherapy undergraduate ethics curricula, which will aid in raising ethical awareness and deter ethical misconduct by students. Objectives: Our study describes the ethics topics of undergraduate physiotherapy curricula in South Africa. Method: For this qualitative document analysis, a master copy of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) ethics booklets was compiled after obtaining ethical approval from the University of Pretoria and the participating universities. Ethics topics from the universities’ curricula were extracted, categorised and compared to the master document to describe their frequencies. Results: The six categories of ethics topics are patient care, professionalism, technology and social media, transformation, vulnerable groups and management systems. All universities covered patient care and professionalism according to HPCSA guidelines. The least covered categories were transformation, management systems, vulnerable groups, technology and social media. All curricula included a variety of ethics topics from the second to the fourth year of training. Conclusion: Undergraduate ethics curricula have primarily emphasised patient care and professionalism. However, there is a need to transform these curricula to incorporate African ethics, promoting culturally relevant ethical reasoning and enhancing the responsiveness of clinical practice. Clinical implications: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has created a dynamic shift towards technology, necessitating that universities respond by training physiotherapists who are equipped to address society’s demands.