Investigation of the level of vocational professionalism of physiotherapists

This study, in scope of the core values in physiotherapy defined by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) to assess the level of professionalism of physiotherapists in Turkey, and was planned to investigate the factors affecting the level of professionalism. The study was included 384 physiotherapists with a mean age of 29.8 ± 5.8 years and duration of professional experience of 6.7 ± 5.9 years. To evaluated level of professionalism of physiotherapists was used tool that "'Professionalism in Physical Therapy: Core Values Self-Assessment (PPCVS)" developed by the APTA. Firstly, the adaptation of PPCVS to Turkish was done. Test-retest reliability (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient-ICC) and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α) were tested. It was determined that the reliability of internal consistency was high (α = 0.97) and the test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.82) was acceptable level. Physiotherapists was 269.7 ± 36.4 mean of score for PPCVS. Physiotherapists were seem that core values are often reported to exhibit and perceived as high levels of professionalism. Moreover, it has been observed that there is not enough awareness about professional values and not enough awareness is given in undergraduate education. It saw that physiotherapists who have a Ph.D. or a Master's Degree, work in a university, work in institutions supported to courses or seminars, tended to keep his career, love their profession and are satisfied with their profession are higher score in PPCVS and they exhibit their professional values at a higher level (p<0.05). In addition, it was determined that there was a strong correlation between physiotherapists' level of awareness about professional values and PPCVS scores (r = 0,716 p <0,001). It was found that in this study physiotherapy curriculum to improve the level of professionalism among physiotherapists in Turkey, education changes and should be revised working conditions. Keywords: Physiotherapist, Professionalism, Professional values, Turkey