Case of the Month
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for expressing your thoughts on this matter. You’re awesome.