Autonomous Practice in Physical Therapy

Autonomous Practice in Physical Therapy benefits. concerns. defined. Autonomous practice is defined by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is characterized by independent, self-determined professional judgement and action. Physical therapists have the capability, ability and responsibility to exercise professional judgment within their scope of practice, and to professionally act on that judgment. this leads to This newfound freedom in physical therapy practice provides benefits for both the practitioner and the patient. empowerment. The ability to control their own practice adds an entirely new environment to physical therapy. Autonomy means collaborative practice, it means you're respected for your skills and there's an understanding of what you do. This idea gives physical therapists a well-deserved and previously unseen respect for their level of education and clinical preparation they go through to be able to provide the kind of care they do. Empowerment leads to positive attitudes and positive work. collaberative thinking. Autonomous practice changes the way physical therapy practices are organized. This trend eliminates most heirarchy and establishes different types of physical therapists as colleagues, encouraging them to work together and use one another as resoucres. direct access. Possibly the most important benefit going along with autonomous practice is something called direct access. Autonomy gives physical therapists the power to directly alter their patients treatment significantly without legal, regulatory, or payer restrictions. They can refer their patients to other professionals and heath care providers when necessary. This also gives them the capability to refer for diagnostic testing to clarify a patient's situation and enhance the physical therapy services, a power usually dictated to only doctors in the facility where testing takes place. Some are concerned that along with this new power given to physical therapists (and therefore, new responsibility), there will be discrepencies in treatment that may hurt the patient. lack of regulation. An obvious concern is the lack of regulation and ability for a physical therapist to become isolated from others in the feild, which could be especially dangerous to patients if his/her methods of treatment are incorrect. However this, as with any health profession, can be solved by second oppinions. short term remedies. A major concern about the physical therapy feild, especially with the new focus of autonomy, is the focus on short term remedies instead of long term progress. Physical therapists often have the ability to make the patient feel better immediately with the exercises and massaging they do, however, there is a problem in simply using these techniques instead of looking at the big picture and developing a treatment plan for the ultimate goal of pain-free independence for the patient.