Developing Professional Ethics for Rehabilitation Professionals: A Qualitative Study

Codes of ethics are a set of moral standards based on a value system widely accepted by members of a profession. In order to choose the right course of action and resolve potential ethical challenges, these codes will need to be developed so that ethical values can be identified and prioritized. Medical ethics covers all areas of medicine, and surely, rehabilitation is not an exception. This study aims to codify the ethics of the rehabilitation profession while considering the cultural and religious issues in Iran. For this purpose, we used a qualitative research method, including literature review, questionnaire, targeted interviews, content analysis, group discussion, and code extraction. The results were categorized into seven sections: “respect and empathy”, “autonomy”, “offering responsible care and reducing suffering”, “doing the right thing”, “beneficence”, “privacy and confidentiality”, and “social responsibility”. The development of ethical codes for rehabilitation determines moral norms in order to protect the rights of people who need rehabilitation services. These codes can also be used as a guide to the ethical challenges of the profession

The Development of Professional Competencies in Ph.D. Candidates in Psychology: A Thematic Analysis Study

Background: Psychology is one of the important disciplines dealing with mental health. Psychology students develop a set of professional competencies during their studies. The present study sought to explore the experiences of psychology students and assess the development of their professional competencies in the workplace.Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a thematic analysis approach. The data were collected through 27 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 24 Ph.D. candidates in psychology who were completing their dissertations and 2 interviews with 2 professors of psychology. The data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis. The findings revealed the main themes, subthemes, and main categories. Lincoln and Guba’s criteria were used to increase the trustworthiness of the findings.Results: The core theme identified in this study was professional competencies developed during academic studies. Besides, the five subthemes underlying professional competencies were creating and maintaining empathy, building a mutual understanding, enhancing confidentiality, being human and seeing others as human, and getting out of absolutism.Conclusion: The findings reported in the present study suggested that professional competencies are developed in psychology students during their studies according to their professional and clinical experience. Accordingly, providing adequate experiences can contribute to developing and promoting professional competencies in students

The Ethical Considerations in the Main Practices of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization: A Qualitative Study

Background: Effective and acceptable practice in Legal Medicine (LM) requires special attention to ethical and professional behaviors. In LM, the importance of practitioners’ compliance with ethical standards is higher. LM covers a wide range of practices, requiring specific ethical considerations. This study aims to identify the ethical principles for considerations in Iranian Legal Medicine Organization (ILMO) from the perspective of experts in LM. Methods: This is an applied and qualitative study using in-depth interviews and conventional content analysis. The study was conducted in three steps: 1) Determination of the main areas of work by reviewing academic texts، surveying 131 experts in this field with a questionnaire. 2) Qualitative Study for determination of ethical considerations of these areas by structured and in-depth interviews with 49 owner’s Forensic and medical ethics experts obtained by purposive sampling and theoretical saturation and analysis of interviews by the conventional approach of content analysis to specify propositions and confirm the reliability of 80% research in coding through the double-coder agreement method. 3) Drafting ethical guidelines by the research group (students، supervisors، and consultants) in the focus group meetings based on the results of the second step.Results: The ethical principles of LM were categorized as general and specific principles according to the perspective of experts in LM. General ethical principles included virtue ethics, professional and ethical behavior, and proper environment and working conditions. The specific ethical principles included six principles related to the entire organization, legal physical examinations, legal mental examinations, dissection rooms and crime scenes, LM laboratories, and LM commissions.Conclusion: Developing and implementing general and specific ethical guidelines for ILMO is recommended. The comprehensive and holistic view of ethical considerations for main practices of LM in Iran provided by this study can be seen as a good taxonomy and a preliminary step to develop local ethical guidelines