Perception of professional ethics by Iranian occupational therapists working with children

Ethics are related to the structure and culture of the society. In addition to specialized ethics for every profession, individuals also hold their own personal beliefs and values. This study aimed to investigate Iranian occupational therapists’ perception of ethical practice when working with children. For this purpose, qualitative content analysis was used and semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten occupational therapists in their convenient place and time. Each interview was transcribed and double-checked by the research team. Units of meaning were extracted from each transcription and then coded and categorized accordingly. The main categories of ethical practice when working with children included personal attributes, responsibility toward clients, and professional responsibility. Personal attributes included four subcategories: veracity, altruism, empathy, and competence. Responsibility toward clients consisted of six subcategories: equality, autonomy, respect for clients, confidentiality, beneficence, and non-maleficence. Professional responsibility included three subcategories: fidelity, development of professional knowledge, and promotion and growth of the profession. Findings of this study indicated that in Iran, occupational therapists’ perception of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, fidelity and competence is different from Western countries, which may be due to a lower knowledge of ethics and other factors such as culture. The results of this study may be used to develop ethical codes for Iranian occupational therapists both during training and on the job.