Ethical situations can present themselves in any business profession; it’s how you handle them that can determine your success–and massage therapy isn’t exempt.
Massage home-study courses in ethics can help teach you how to handle these situations successfully. Through these courses, you can learn the moral and ethical principles that are commonly practiced throughout the profession.
Nearly every massage therapist will encounter ethical situations throughout their career. Situations that test a therapist’s ethics can arise at any time. Learn how to handle them by preparing yourself.
A home-study course in massage ethics teaches you guidelines to follow when it comes to personal contact with your clients, client confidentiality and how to handle morally complex situations that might present themselves in your practice.
An Internet search revealed numerous home-study courses a massage therapist can take. The courses generally offered for massage therapy ethics include practice management, case management and client relationships.
For ethical practice management, home-study students learn about local, state and federal requirements of massage therapy practices. The courses also include segments about business licensing, permits, insurance coverage and legal business relationships.
Home-study classes also discuss the client-therapist relationship. Because massage therapy involves touch therapy, massage ethics classes can teach you about what is and is not appropriate.
In case-management classes, massage therapists learn topics that cover the essential aspects of communication, documentation, and insurance billing for your massage practice, along with client intake, interviewing skills, obtaining medical release authorizations and informed consent, functional goal development, charting, insurance billing and documentation.
Case-management courses also include class sessions on handling sensitive medical documents. Many sensitive medical documents are handled within a massage practice because of the nature of the information passed between the client and therapist.
Ethical standards regulate you to how you should handle this information. A home-study course in massage ethics can be an ideal class to take through the Internet since hands-on testing and demonstrations aren’t required. The courses are typically based on book study; however, some do offer online interaction through message boards, which allows for discussion about ethical practices. Those discussions can be helpful for massage therapists, who can share their own personal experiences and how they deal with them.
In the home-study courses, you will also learn about how state licensing boards and professional associations set professional codes of ethics and define standards of professional conduct.
Make sure to check with your national and state licensing bodies to make sure the courses you select are acceptable for continuing education credits.