About Responsible Authorities
Various Responsible Authorities regulate physiotherapy, psychology, OT, optometry, and more under the HPCA Act 2003.
New Zealand · Healthcare Professionals
Ethics & Professionalism Courses for Healthcare Professionals in New Zealand
For all health practitioners regulated under the HPCA Act 2003. Written by healthcare professionals familiar with NZ health regulation.
Why These Courses?
Aligned with Responsible Authority guidelines. Helping healthcare professionals facing an investigation, inquiry or fitness to practise review, and for CPD purposes.
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We'll recommend the courses you need based on your situation
HEALTHCARE ETHICS
Ethics for Healthcare Professionals
Covers ethical obligations including duties to report concerns, maintain honesty, and uphold probity in all professional dealings — core Responsible Authorities requirements.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Professionalism for Healthcare Professionals
Covers professional standards and behaviours expected by the Responsible Authorities — conduct, communication, teamwork, and maintaining public trust.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
MEDICAL ETHICS
Medical Ethics Course
Comprehensive course on medical ethics principles — ethical frameworks, moral reasoning, and professional decision-making aligned with Responsible Authorities guidelines.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Professional Ethics Course
Explores the professional ethics landscape — ethical obligations, standards of practice, and regulatory expectations set by the Responsible Authorities.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
DUTY OF CANDOUR
Duty of Candour for Healthcare Professionals
Covers duty of candour obligations — being open and honest with patients when things go wrong, as required by the Responsible Authorities.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
CONFIDENTIALITY
Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice
Understand confidentiality obligations under Responsible Authorities guidelines — data protection, justified disclosure, and information sharing.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
PRIVACY, CONSENT & CHAPERONE
Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice
Training on valid informed consent, patient privacy, capacity assessment, and chaperone requirements per Responsible Authorities guidelines.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
COMMUNICATION
Effective Communication for Healthcare Professionals
Communication skills that prevent complaints — breaking bad news, shared decision-making, and conflict resolution per Responsible Authorities guidelines.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation for Healthcare Professionals
Create clear, legally defensible records meeting Responsible Authorities standards — electronic records, amendments, and common errors.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media Professionalism and Boundaries for Healthcare Professionals
Navigate social media risks — Responsible Authorities guidance on online conduct, digital confidentiality, and reputation management.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
TEAMWORK
Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration
Strengthen multidisciplinary teamwork — communication, handover protocols, hierarchy management, and safe team environments.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
PRESCRIBING
Prescribing Guidance and Standards for Healthcare Professionals
Ethical and professional standards for safe prescribing — regulatory guidelines, controlled substances, and protocols.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
CLINICAL COMPETENCE
Ensuring Clinical Competence and Patient Safety
Maintain and demonstrate clinical competence as required by the Responsible Authorities — patient safety, risk management, and governance.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
PROBITY
Probity and Honesty for Healthcare Professionals
What probity means under Responsible Authorities guidelines — honesty, financial integrity, transparency, and managing conflicts of interest.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
FINANCIAL INTEGRITY
Financial Integrity for Healthcare Professionals
Navigate financial ethics — conflicts of interest, industry relationships, billing ethics, gift policies, and full transparency.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
TRUST REBUILDING
Rebuilding Trust of Patients, Public and Healthcare Regulator
Practical guidance on rebuilding professional trust after an incident — restoring confidence with patients, the public, and the Responsible Authorities.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
FITNESS TO PRACTICE
Fitness to Practise for Healthcare Professionals
Essential course for Responsible Authorities proceedings — complaints, investigation, hearings, demonstrating insight, remediation, and outcomes.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
MODULE ON INSIGHT
Insight for Fitness to Practise
Build professional insight — recognising limitations, understanding impact, and satisfying Responsible Authorities expectations during proceedings.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
MODULE ON REMEDIATION
Remediation for Fitness to Practise
Guidance on effective remediation — action plans, evidencing change, and demonstrating concerns are addressed.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
MODULE ON REFLECTION
Reflection for Fitness to Practise
Develop meaningful reflective practice — reflective accounts, structured frameworks, and meeting Responsible Authorities expectations.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
MISTAKE & MISCONDUCT PREVENTION
Ensuring No Repeat of Misconduct or Mistake in Future Practice
Demonstrate that past issues will not be repeated — root cause analysis, practice changes, and sustained improvement.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
COMPLAINT OR INVESTIGATION
Dealing with a Complaint or Investigation Professionally
Guidance on managing complaints professionally — investigation process, response letters, lessons learned, and resilience.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES
Professional Boundaries Course
Covers the boundary spectrum, dual relationships, warning signs of drift, sexual boundary violations, and maintaining trust.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
ETHICAL BOUNDARIES
Ethical Boundaries with Patients and Colleagues
Maintaining ethical boundaries in clinical relationships — patient interactions, colleague dynamics, and power imbalances.
2 CPD hours · aligned with Responsible Authorities
Ethics & professionalism CPD for New Zealand healthcare professionals
Ethics, Professionalism and CPD Courses for Healthcare Professionals in New Zealand
If you are searching for healthcare CPD, an ethics course for healthcare professionals, or continuing professional development to support your Annual Practising Certificate (APC) and recertification, these online courses are built for you. Whichever New Zealand Responsible Authority you are registered with, the issues that most often put registration at risk are rarely clinical knowledge alone — they concern consent, confidentiality, professional boundaries, communication, documentation and conduct, measured against your Responsible Authority’s standards and the HDC Code of Rights.
CPD, recertification and your Annual Practising Certificate (APC)
Every New Zealand Responsible Authority — the Medical Council, Nursing Council, Dental Council, Pharmacy Council, Physiotherapy Board, Psychologists Board, Osteopathic Council, Chiropractic Board and others — runs a recertification programme that asks practitioners holding an APC to complete and record continuing professional development. Our ethics and professionalism courses each award 2 CPD hours and document the ethical and professional learning these programmes are designed to capture. Confirm with your Responsible Authority how to record them.
Fitness to practise, HDC complaints and competence reviews
Learning that a concern or complaint has been raised — whether to the Health and Disability Commissioner, your employer or your Responsible Authority — is one of the most stressful moments in a healthcare career. Our courses on dealing with a complaint or investigation and fitness to practise explain the process and help you respond constructively and professionally.
Demonstrating insight, reflection and remediation
When a Responsible Authority or a review panel assesses a practitioner, it looks for genuine insight, reflection and remediation rather than clinical knowledge alone — and assurance there will be no repeat of the concern. These courses give you documented, dated CPD evidence for a formal response or review.
What our healthcare ethics and professionalism courses cover
Ethics, informed consent and confidentiality
The core obligations every practitioner relies on: informed consent, privacy and chaperones, confidentiality, the duty of candour after an adverse event, and accurate clinical documentation and record-keeping that stands up to scrutiny.
Professional boundaries, probity and conduct
The conduct standards that most often draw complaints: professional boundaries, ethical boundaries with patients and colleagues, probity and honesty, financial integrity, and social media professionalism.
Common triggers for complaints across healthcare
Many matters before the HDC or a Responsible Authority arise from communication breakdowns, concerns about clinical competence and patient safety, teamwork, or prescribing rather than a failure of clinical knowledge. Understanding these standards is the most reliable way to reduce that risk.
Online, self-paced CPD with an instant certificate
Every course is online and self-paced, takes around two hours, and awards 2 CPD hours with a Certificate of Completion available for immediate download — NZ$99 per course. Browse the full ethics and professionalism CPD course catalogue for New Zealand healthcare professionals to match courses to your recertification, APC renewal or fitness to practise needs.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Are these courses suitable for my Responsible Authority’s recertification and CPD?
Yes. Each course awards 2 CPD hours and a downloadable Certificate of Completion. New Zealand’s Responsible Authorities — including the Medical Council, Nursing Council, Dental Council, Pharmacy Council, Physiotherapy Board, Psychologists Board and others — each run a recertification programme; confirm with yours how these hours count towards your CPD requirements.
Can these courses help if I am facing an HDC complaint or a competence or fitness to practise review?
Yes. Our ethics, professionalism, insight, reflection and remediation courses are designed to support practitioners responding to a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner, a competence review, or a fitness to practise process. Completing them provides documented evidence of proactive professional development you can reference in a formal response.
Which healthcare professionals are these courses for?
Doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, optometrists, dispensing opticians, osteopaths, chiropractors and other practitioners registered with a New Zealand Responsible Authority under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 — including practitioners under review.
Are the courses fully online and self-paced?
Yes. All courses are delivered online and can be completed from a computer, tablet or smartphone, in your own time. There are no live sessions and no scheduled start times.
How long does each course take and what do I receive?
Most courses take approximately two hours to complete and are delivered through written content and knowledge-check quizzes. On completion you receive 2 CPD hours and a Certificate of Completion available for immediate download.
What topics do the courses cover?
Ethics, professionalism, informed consent, confidentiality and privacy, professional boundaries, communication, documentation, probity, duty of candour, insight, reflection, remediation and fitness to practise.
How much do the courses cost?
Each course is NZ$99 and includes 2 CPD hours and an instant Certificate of Completion for your CPD portfolio, recertification or a formal regulatory response.
Are the courses aligned with my Responsible Authority’s standards?
Yes. The courses are built around the standards of the New Zealand Responsible Authorities and the HDC Code of Rights. They are aligned with these standards rather than independently accredited; confirm with your Responsible Authority how CPD hours apply to your recertification.
Who creates the courses, and what are their credentials?
Our courses are developed under the direction of Dr Shehzad Iqbal — MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England), MRCGP (Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners), and holder of a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics from the University of Dundee. Content is written with close reference to the standards of the New Zealand Responsible Authorities, the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and the HDC Code of Rights, so it is clinically grounded, legally informed and relevant to healthcare professionals practising in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Preparing for Investigation or seeking CPD?
Courses written by healthcare professionals, aligned with Responsible Authorities guidelines for healthcare professionals in New Zealand.
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