Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which rehabilitation educators perceive the importance of identified topics comprising a formal rehabilitation ethics course, the benefits for recipients of rehabilitation services resulting from service providers receiving such a course, and their past education and experiences as sufficient to teach a formal rehabilitation ethics course. In addition, the interest of rehabilitation educators in teaching such a course was investigated. ;Frequencies were used to describe rehabilitation educator perceptions of the importance of identified topics being covered in a formal rehabilitation ethics course, the benefits for the recipients of rehabilitation services resulting from service providers receiving such a course, the sufficiency of their past education and experiences for teaching a formal rehabilitation ethics course, and their interest in teaching such a course. ;The results of this study support the hypothesis that rehabilitation educators view ethics education as important. Rehabilitation educators perceived themselves as sufficiently prepared to teach six of ten topics submitted as part of a formal course in ethics education. The majority tended to perceive their education and professional background as insufficient to teach the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and fidelity as guides to professional behavior. Furthermore, the majority of rehabilitation educators viewed the coverage of unethical counselor behaviors to avoid, the Code of Professional Ethics for Rehabilitation Counselors as a guide to professional behavior, types of ethical dilemmas confronted in the rehabilitation service delivery process, and decision-making strategies for resolving ethical dilemmas in the rehabilitation service delivery process as very important to cover in a formal ethics education course, while only a minority of them view the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, justice, and fidelity as guides to professional behavior as very important to cover. ;To examine the relationship between the attendance of rehabilitation educators at an ethics education workshop and their perceptions of: the importance of identified topics comprising a formal rehabilitation ethics course, the benefits for the recipients of rehabilitation services resulting from service providers receiving such a course, the sufficiency of their past education and experiences for teaching a formal rehabilitation ethics course, and their interest in teaching such a course a series of independent t-tests were performed on the responses of those who attended the workshop and those who did not attend on the above dependent measures