Physiotherapy treatment is involved with significant amount of exposure visual as well as auditory. Which becomes sensitive.
During treatment of our patients we should consider then firstly with utmost dignity.
Patients have a right to expect privacy in the provision of their healthcare. The Physiotherapists needs to have policies about patients privacy and these policies must be upheld by Physiotherapy staff also.
Identify individual privacy needs each client has a unique need for privacy during a consultation.
This need may vary according to personal preference, natural modesty, the type of care being provided and the patients familiarity with the intervention, eg. the privacy needs of a client may be different if the consultation involves the treatment of a sports injury versus continence management.
In determining the individual privacy needs of a patient, Physiotherapist and staff should avoid stereotyping and generalising.
1. Visual privacy
If a client needs to disrobe for a particular intervention, the health professional must provide a clear explanation of ‘adequate undress’ and the reason it is important. The health professional should offer suitable cover if it is necessary to protect the client’s dignity and privacy.
Sometime the client should be invited to disrobe behind a privacy screen. In such cases the health professional may turn their back or choose to leave the room while a client disrobes.
Where a client is particularly vulnerable and or there is potential for the patient-practitioner relationship to be particularly sensitive, the health professional may seek the client’s consent to have a third party present in
a supervisor role if the client needs to disrobe for an intervention.
2. Auditory privacy
The Physiotherapist should have at least one area that offers satisfactory auditory privacy so that discussions with a patient can be conducted in private.
In Physiotherapy clinics
with curtained treatment areas, this may mean that discussions at the commencement of a consultation need to be conducted in private in a separate area.
It is particularly important that discussion and telephone mobile communication at the reception area be conducted discreetly, in the interests of respecting Patients and protecting the privacy of health information.
Discussions between health professionals about a client should be conducted carefully and should not take place in the presence of other Patients or administrative staff.
Assessment indicators
Firstly Physiotherapists and other staff can describe how they identify the individual privacy needs of a client. Secondly The Physiotherapist has a policy which describes how
the privacy needs of individual Patients are met.
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