The Realm - Individual Process - Situation ( RIPS ) Model of Ethical Decision - Making

Physical therapists (PTs) and physical therapist assistants (PTAs) confront ethical decisions everyday. The difficulty of such decisions range from situations of simply abiding by professional ethical standards and values to difficult scenarios in which there appear to be two competing obligations. An established sequence of steps in resolving difficult ethical situations can be helpful to insure that you have thoroughly analyzed all aspects of the situation. In essence, these decision-making steps help you to “walk all the way around” an ethical problem. Within physical therapy, several authors1-5 have proposed ethical decision-making frameworks. While any one of these approaches may be helpful in analyzing an ethical situation, this article puts forward a contemporary decision-making framework that addresses some of the limitations of previous frameworks: