As the title suggests, a physical therapist is a healthcare professional who helps patients physically heal by restoring their mobility functions, reducing their physical aches and pain, and preventing a similar future injury from transpiring. While you may be just trying to do your job and aid your patients to the best of your capacity, what you may get in return are, unfortunately, allegations of sexual misconduct. If you believe these misconduct claims to be uncalled for, please continue reading to learn why a physical therapist like yourself is prone to such and how one of the seasoned New York health care professional defense lawyers at Walker Medical Law can help prove your innocence.
As a physical therapist, why might I be accused of sexual misconduct?
It is in the nature of a physical therapist’s profession to apply hands-on corrections to their patients. After all, this is a core component of manual therapy, as patients benefit from real-time feedback to better address the root cause of their limited movement and bodily pain.
This, coupled with the inherent power imbalance between a healthcare professional and a patient, may make a patient nervous that they are being made the victim of sexual misconduct. With that being said, your patient may unfortunately accuse you of such if they believe any of the following incidents to be true:
- A patient may believe that you touched a part of their body that is not clinically justified or that they did not consent to.
- A patient may believe that you made inappropriate comments about their body or appearance during the therapy session.
- A patient may believe that you shared too much personal information in an attempt to initiate a romantic or sexual relationship.
What should I do to avoid receiving sexual misconduct allegations?
There are ways to maintain your duty of care in providing your patients with the best treatment possible, all while staying clear of any accusations of sexual misconduct. Some healthy tips that are in your best interest to adopt are as follows:
- You must communicate the physical touch you may need to apply during a certain exercise in advance and get the patient’s explicit consent.
- You must maintain professional language when referring to the patient’s body parts and avoid getting too friendly or casual during the session.
- You must have a designated therapist or staff member present in the same room during the session to oversee your interactions with the patient.
In a worst-case scenario, though, you might be too late and a patient has already reported you to the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Discipline (OPD). If the Board ultimately reaches a guilty verdict, you may be punished as drastically as losing your professional license. So, as soon as you hear rumblings about potential sexual misconduct allegations against you, you must retain strong legal representation.
If you need help preparing for this upcoming legal process, turn to one of the skilled New York health care professional defense lawyers. We at Walker Medical Law have gone through this countless times before, and we are ready to go through it again to support you.
