About the ODOB
The Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board (ODOB) regulates optometrists and dispensing opticians under the HPCA Act 2003 — registration, competence standards, and fitness to practise.
New Zealand · Optometrists & Dispensing Opticians
Ethics & Professionalism Courses for Optometrists & Dispensing Opticians in New Zealand
Developed for optometrists and dispensing opticians holding an Annual Practising Certificate from the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board (ODOB). Our courses address clinical competence, cultural competence, ethical conduct, and fitness to practise under the HPCA Act 2003. Written by healthcare professionals who understand NZ regulation.
Why These Courses?
Aligned with ODOB guidelines. Helping optometrists and dispensing opticians 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
ETHICS & CONDUCT STANDARDS
Ethics and Ethical Standards for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians
Covers ethical obligations including duties to report concerns, maintain honesty, and uphold probity in all professional dealings — core ODOB requirements.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
PROFESSIONALISM STANDARDS
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians
Covers professional standards and behaviours expected by the ODOB — conduct, communication, teamwork, and maintaining public trust.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Professional Ethics Course
Explores the professional ethics landscape — ethical obligations, standards of practice, and regulatory expectations set by the ODOB.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
MEDICAL ETHICS
Medical Ethics Course
Comprehensive course on medical ethics principles — ethical frameworks, moral reasoning, and professional decision-making aligned with ODOB guidelines.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
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 ODOB.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
CONFIDENTIALITY
Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice
Understand confidentiality obligations under ODOB guidelines — data protection, justified disclosure, and information sharing.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
PRIVACY, CONSENT & CHAPERONE
Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice
Training on valid informed consent, patient privacy, capacity assessment, and chaperone requirements per ODOB guidelines.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
COMMUNICATION
Effective Communication for Healthcare Professionals
Communication skills that prevent complaints — breaking bad news, shared decision-making, and conflict resolution per ODOB guidelines.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation for Healthcare Professionals
Create clear, legally defensible records meeting ODOB standards — electronic records, amendments, and common errors.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media Professionalism and Boundaries for Healthcare Professionals
Navigate social media risks — ODOB guidance on online conduct, digital confidentiality, and reputation management.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
TEAMWORK
Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration
Strengthen multidisciplinary teamwork — communication, handover protocols, hierarchy management, and safe team environments.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
CLINICAL COMPETENCE
Ensuring Clinical Competence and Patient Safety
Maintain and demonstrate clinical competence as required by the ODOB — patient safety, risk management, and governance.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
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 ODOB
PROBITY
Probity and Honesty for Healthcare Professionals
What probity means under ODOB guidelines — honesty, financial integrity, transparency, and managing conflicts of interest.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
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 ODOB
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 ODOB.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
FITNESS TO PRACTICE
Fitness to Practise for Healthcare Professionals
Essential course for ODOB proceedings — complaints, investigation, hearings, demonstrating insight, remediation, and outcomes.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
MODULE ON INSIGHT
Insight for Fitness to Practise
Build professional insight — recognising limitations, understanding impact, and satisfying ODOB expectations during proceedings.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
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 ODOB
MODULE ON REFLECTION
Reflection for Fitness to Practise
Develop meaningful reflective practice — reflective accounts, structured frameworks, and meeting ODOB expectations.
2 CPD hours · aligned with ODOB
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 ODOB
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 ODOB
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 ODOB
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 ODOB
Optometry & dispensing optician ethics CPD for the ODOB recertification programme
Ethics, Professionalism and CPD Courses for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians in New Zealand
If you are searching for optometry CPD, dispensing optician CPD, an ethics CPD course, or continuing professional development for your Annual Practising Certificate (APC) and ODOB recertification, these online courses are built for you. For optometrists and dispensing opticians registered with the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board (ODOB), 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 the ODOB’s standards and the HDC Code of Rights.
CPD credits, recertification and your ethical CPD requirement
The ODOB recertification programme runs in two-year cycles: optometrists log 40 CPD credits and dispensing opticians log 20, and both must include at least one ethical CPD credit and one cultural CPD credit per cycle. Our ethics and professionalism courses for optometrists and dispensing opticians focus on exactly the ethical conduct content the ethical CPD credit is about. Confirm with the ODOB how to record and accredit these as CPD credits for your recertification cycle.
Fitness to practise, HDC complaints and ODOB self-audits
Learning that a concern, complaint or self-audit has been raised — whether to the Health and Disability Commissioner, your employer or the ODOB — is one of the most stressful moments in an optometry 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 the ODOB 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 self-audit.
What our optometry ethics and professionalism courses cover
Ethics, informed consent and confidentiality
The core obligations every optometrist and dispensing optician relies on: informed consent, privacy and chaperones, confidentiality and patient privacy, 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 optometry complaints
Many matters before the HDC or the ODOB 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 optometry 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 optometrists and dispensing opticians to match courses to your recertification, APC renewal or ethical CPD credit needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these optometrists and dispensing opticians ethics courses recognised by the ODOB for CPD?
The courses are written to align with the ODOB's standards of ethical conduct and professionalism, so completing one and keeping your certificate is a practical way to evidence professional development in your portfolio. They are an independent education resource rather than an official ODOB product, so always confirm your specific recertification requirements with the Board.
Will a course help if I am facing a complaint or fitness to practise investigation?
Yes. When the ODOB, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Health and Disability Commissioner reviews a concern, they look for genuine insight, meaningful remediation and honest reflection. Courses on insight, remediation, reflection and ensuring no repeat help you understand exactly what is expected and produce credible evidence of change. They support — but do not replace — your own legal and professional advice.
Are the courses online and self-paced?
Yes. Every course is fully online and self-paced, so you can work through it around your clinical commitments, on any device, with no fixed start date.
Do I receive a certificate?
Yes. On finishing each course you can download a certificate of completion to keep in your CPD, appraisal or recertification records, or to provide as evidence during a review.
What is the difference between the Ethics course and the Professionalism course?
The Ethics and Ethical Standards course focuses on ethical principles and decision-making — confidentiality, consent, conflicts of interest and applying ethical frameworks to real optometrists and dispensing opticians scenarios. The Professionalism and Professional Standards course focuses on conduct and behaviour — communication, teamwork, record-keeping, boundaries and maintaining public trust. Many practitioners take both for full coverage.
Do the courses cover referral duties and conflicts of interest with product sales?
Yes. Two recurring issues for optometrists and dispensing opticians are recognising and referring sight-threatening conditions in time, and managing the tension between clinical advice and selling spectacles or contact lenses. The Ethics, Financial Integrity and Clinical Competence courses address timely referral, transparent recommendations, and keeping the patient's interests ahead of any commercial incentive.
I have just been notified by my Board or the HDC — where should I start?
Start with Fitness to Practise for an overview of the process, then Dealing with a Complaint or Investigation Professionally. If specific concerns have been identified, add the Insight, Remediation and Reflection modules so you can evidence each step the regulator looks for.
Can I use these courses for my recertification or CPD portfolio?
Yes — your certificate and reflective notes can be included as a professional development activity. Confirm the exact categories and hours your ODOB recertification programme requires.
Who writes the courses?
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 Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board’s standards, the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and the HDC Code of Rights, so it is clinically grounded, legally informed and relevant to optometry and dispensing practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.
How much do they cost, and can I buy several at once?
Each course is NZ$99. You can add as many as you need to your basket and check out together — practitioners preparing for a review often combine the ethics, professionalism and fitness-to-practise modules.
Preparing for Investigation or seeking CPD?
Courses written by healthcare professionals, aligned with ODOB guidelines for optometrists and dispensing opticians in New Zealand.
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