Spiritual care rights and quality of care: perspectives of physical therapy students.

Integrating patients' spiritual values into healthcare is important to quality of care according to patients and to accrediting agencies. Little is known, however, about how or whether physical therapists, as members of the healthcare team, are knowledgeable about these values or incorporate them into practice. Therefore, we explored the perspectives of 34 physical therapy (PT) students via an online discussion. Most suggested that spiritual and religious considerations should be part of PT practice, noting their potential effect upon motivation, functional status, and outcomes. Further dialog about and assessment of PT education and practice related to spiritual issues seem warranted.