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Profession—A Paradox?

Dr. Singleton is Professor of Physical Therapy and Anatomy, Division of Physical Therapy, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

This excerpt was created in the absence of an abstract.

The question raised here is vital to physical therapy. Is the fundamental premise on which the profession is based—humanistic service to the patient—becoming a paradox? We pay lip service to this basic tenet; however, if we do not continually demonstrate such belief by awarding it the highest priority in actual practice, we create an inherent contradiction—a paradox. Does our professional action often constitute such a paradox?

In the midst of a complicated health care system with its many problems and bureaucratic regulations, the physical therapist struggles to fulfill the responsibilities for which he was educated. In this demanding and frequently demoralizing environment, the therapist's predominant attention to a foremost central mission of caring for the patient may be diverted by substitution of other priorities. These distracting objectives take many forms; outstanding among them are a dominant focus on financial profit or major concern with routinized procedural technicality.

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Physical Therapy 1981 61: 392. [Abstract] [PDF]