College Blog 

In the spirit of transparency, we encourage open debate and constructive criticism. For this to be effective, comments need to remain professional and respectful. Comments will be reviewed and posts that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified facts, product pitches, or profanity will not be published. 

When Posting Becomes Unprofessional

Jun 15, 2021

The Case

The College received a complaint from a member of the public about social media posts by a physiotherapist about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the posts, the physiotherapist identified themselves as a health care worker with experience treating patients with viral and respiratory illnesses. They posted a handful of comments questioning the validity of COVID-19 vaccines, the classification of COVID-19 as a global pandemic and suggested that the number of deaths attributed to COVID was inaccurate.

In their response to the College, the PT noted that they were trying to engage in respectful, open conversation with members of the community. However, the physiotherapist acknowledged that their professionalism and personal opinion may be perceived as intertwined, so they decided to remove the posts.

The Rules

As regulated health care professionals, physiotherapists must always act in accordance with the law, public health orders and recommendations, regulatory standards, and the College’s Code of Ethics when offering their opinions on public-facing platforms like social media.

Physiotherapists hold a unique position of trust with the public and have a professional responsibility to not make comments or provide information that encourages the public to ignore public health guidance. The information physiotherapists share must not be misleading or deceptive and must be supported by scientific evidence.

The Outcome

The Committee acknowledges that every individual has the right to autonomy when making decisions about their personal health care. However, the Committee was concerned that the PT shared specific anti-vaccination views to support their own personal beliefs rather than sharing general information about individual choice in health care.

The Committee determined that the physiotherapist’s posts lacked supporting evidence and contradicted information from public health authorities. As such, the posts were not aligned with the PT’s responsibilities as a regulated health professional.

In the posts, the physiotherapist spoke about being a health care worker with experience treating viral and respiratory diseases. It is possible that members of the public could have seen these posts and decided to forgo a vaccine based on the belief that they were acting on the guidance of a health professional.

The Committee determined that these concerns were significant enough for the physiotherapist to receive a caution. The caution will appear on the Public Register permanently.

Standards and Resources

Code of Ethics

Leave a comment
  1. Rocko | Jul 11, 2023
    Thanks for expressing your thoughts on this matter. You're awesome.
  2. Gregory Nason | Dec 05, 2022
    There needs to be a level of reliability and backable research when posting about public health information. Even if the physio wanted a spark an online conversation with the community, the Physio must remember that members of the community look to them for information because we hold the title of health care provider. 
  3. Mohammad Yazdchi | Aug 25, 2022
    it is important that PT noted that they should not post their personal opinions in social media because PT has professional responsibility about public health and their ideas about health care should be according to scientific evidences.
  4. Jaskirat Kaur | Mar 17, 2022
    Every physiotherapist has some responsibilities and duties both as a professional and as a responsible citizen. Sharing personal opinions and views on social media also has its limitations. Social media is a powerful tool in today's world and it can impact people in a variety of ways. Under extraordinary circumstances such as the pandemic, as a health professional it becomes even more important to communicate accurate and reliable information. It is important to validate our opinions particularly those related with public health with high quality evidence.
  5. VARUN SINGH | Feb 27, 2022

    Regulated health care professionals are bound to follow, promote, and align with law, public health orders and recommendations, regulatory standards, and the College’s Code of Ethics to provide and promote best health care to the community. Also, if there is some changes or modification needed with any public health recommendations, it should be backed up with strong scientific evidences and should also be discussed on appropriate platforms where these changes can be made after evaluating both the aspects.

    In above scenario PT was communicating the opinion on a public platform without having a scientific evidence. This might lead to provide wrong information to the public from a regulated healthcare professional, which can encourage public not to follow the guidelines from public health with scientific evidence and are in best interest of public health and safety. 

  6. Prateek Gupta | Feb 13, 2022
    Direct and suggestive comments from a healthcare professional, such as a Physical Therapist should not be done unless there is strong (and proven) research to validate those claims. 
  7. Mitchell Caprelli | Jan 11, 2022
    It is important for PTs to understand that they are in the healthcare field and therefore their views carry more merit. If a PT has a specific point of view, that is fine, but they should make sure whatever they post on social media is not too suggestive and/or is too direct without generalizations and proper research behind the point 

    Leave a comment

    Comment Form
    back

    Have a Question?

    advice@collegept.org or 647-484-8800 or 1-800-583-5885 ext. 241