Osteopathic Council notification · Written to Code of Conduct for Osteopaths
Ethics and Ethical Standards for Osteopaths for Osteopaths facing an Osteopathic Council investigation, complaint or allegation
The allegation concerns your ethical judgement, behaviour or conduct as an osteopath.
- Consent — a cervical technique or undressing without the reason explained
- Boundaries — a boundaries breach with a patient or a colleague
- Draping — undressed without draping, or a sensitive area unchaperoned
- Evidence — a treatment continued on belief, not on evidence
- ACC claims — notes written later, or a claim the record doesn’t support
- Confidentiality — a patient’s treatment discussed where neighbours hear
- Scope — a technique without the training, or a referral not made
- Any other — ethical concern or allegation of unethical conduct
Facing an allegation of unethical behaviour or misconduct like these — from the Osteopathic Council, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal?
Help with an Osteopathic Council investigation, complaint or allegation starts here. This CPD course helps you remediate — and demonstrate the remediation, with a dated certificate for your written response, your portfolio or a Committee or Tribunal direction.
Immediate access · certificate on completion · twelve months' access
- 2 CPD hours
- Self-paced
- Written for New Zealand
- CPD certificate
- Bulk buy: any 5 for NZ$850 · any 10 for NZ$1,400
At a glance
- Who it is for
- Any osteopath facing an Osteopathic Council complaint, notification or allegation, a Professional Conduct Committee investigation or a competence review about ethical conduct, behaviour or decisions — an allegation of unethical behaviour, conduct or action
- Authorities covered
- The Osteopathic Council of New Zealand, its Health Committee, its Professional Conduct Committees and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
- Length
- 10 sections, 65 lessons, 2 CPD hours
- Format
- Self-paced, online, immediate access, twelve months from purchase
- Certificate
- Issued by Healthcare Ethics Courses on completion, dated, with the course title and 2 CPD hours
- Price
- NZ$200 · any 5 for NZ$850 · any 10 for NZ$1,400
Certificate issued by Healthcare Ethics CoursesRemediation courses for regulatory processes.
Who this course is for
Facing an allegation of unethical behaviour or conduct
The Council’s letter says a consent, a technique, a treatment continued, a confidence or a relationship fell short of the Code of Conduct for Osteopaths. This course is how you account for the decision — which is not the same as defending it — and show you have remediated.
Dealing with an Osteopathic Council complaint
The Council sends you the complaint and asks for your response, and most complaints in its latest report closed on that response. The notes show the technique and the visit, not why; this course gives your response the reasoning the Council reads for.
A complaint about what happened in the room
With no chaperone or colleague present, the Council has two accounts and your notes. A Tribunal majority has treated failure to drape as part of professional misconduct; the course teaches the account, the record and the chaperone policy that answer it.
A complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner
A complaint that your care affected a patient goes to the Commissioner first, and the Council can act on public safety meanwhile. The Commissioner has referred osteopaths to the Director of Proceedings over remarks and messages that crossed a boundary; remediation completed now is already documented.
Before a competence review or a Professional Conduct Committee
You are asked about your practice and professional development before any review against the Capabilities; or two osteopaths, one from your area of practice, and a layperson, with an investigator and a legal adviser, meet you at a recorded meeting of about two hours near where the events happened.
Facing a misconduct charge or hearing before the Tribunal
A charge has been laid, or a penalty is being decided — and the Tribunal has cancelled osteopaths’ registrations for sexual misconduct and suspended one for inappropriate touching, ordering education in ethics, boundaries and consent. Remediation completed before the hearing, dated and documented, is weighed every time.
The concerns this course speaks to
Consent to touch that was not real
Treatment begun without proper informed consent, undressing requested without the reason, a cervical technique performed without the risk discussed, consent not asked again when the treatment changed. The Council’s informed consent guidelines set the measure, and the Code asks you to work in partnership with the patient — consent is a conversation, not a form.
Boundaries with patients and colleagues
A relationship that grew out of years of hands-on care, a home visit, a message after hours, a gift or a business dealing, a colleague or a member of staff harassed. The Code asks you to work respectfully with colleagues as well as patients; the Tribunal has cancelled registrations for sexual misconduct, and the course treats the first drift as the moment the standard is engaged.
Draping, sensitive areas and a chaperone
A patient left undressed without draping, a sensitive area treated without explanation or a chaperone offered, clothing adjusted without asking. A Tribunal majority treated failure to drape as part of professional misconduct, and an osteopath suspended in 2025 was barred for a year from treating sensitive areas without a chaperone.
Beneficence against belief
A treatment continued because the patient believes in it more than the evidence does, cranial work for a condition the evidence does not reach, a plan that served the practice. Acting for the patient’s benefit means the benefit the evidence can support, and the course treats the gap between the osteopathic model and the evidence as an ethical question rather than a philosophical one.
Probity, ACC and an allegation of dishonesty
Notes written on Sunday and dated through the week, an ACC claim for a treatment shorter than the code or never given, a favour later claimed, a qualification overstated. The Code asks you to act with integrity to justify patients’ trust, and the course gives honesty in records and claims a section of its own.
Confidentiality where patients are also neighbours
A patient’s back mentioned at the rugby club, a spouse who asks, an employer who pays, a file left visible in a room that is also the office. The Code asks you to respect patients’ privacy and confidentiality, the Health Information Privacy Code applies, and neither shrinks where the community is small.
Scope, competence and the limits of the evidence
A technique used without the training, a cervical manipulation without the screening, a condition managed that should have been referred, a claim the evidence cannot carry. The Code asks for safe and competent care and the Capabilities set the measure; the course treats overreach as an ethical matter.
Cultural safety and any other concern
A Māori patient’s reluctance to undress read as non-compliance, tikanga around the head not asked about, whānau kept out of the room. Partnership is one of the Code’s four values and respecting cultural needs and values one of its principles. Any allegation is measured against a value or principle of the Code — the course shows you how to find it and answer it.
Facing an Osteopathic Council investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200What the course covers
Ten sections and 65 lessons, with a reflective quiz closing each of the first nine and a post-course assessment at the end.
Introduction to Ethics in Osteopathic Practice
Five lessons
Core Ethical Principles in Osteopathic Care
Six lessons
Professional Boundaries in Osteopathic Practice
Six lessons
Confidentiality and Privacy
Seven lessons
Informed Consent and Communication
Eight lessons
Ethical Decision-Making in Practice
Seven lessons
Cultural Safety and Ethical Practice in New Zealand
Seven lessons
Ethics in Complaints, Competence Concerns, and Fitness to Practise
Nine lessons
Reflective Practice, Insight, and Remediation
Eight lessons
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Key takeaways and the post-course assessment
Show every lesson title
- Section 01 · Introduction to Ethics in Osteopathic Practice
- What is Ethics in Osteopathic Practice?; Why Ethics Matters in Osteopathic Practice; Ethical Practice and Professional Expectations; Ethics in Everyday Osteopathic Practice; Ethical Challenges in Osteopathic Practice.
- Section 02 · Core Ethical Principles in Osteopathic Care
- Respect for Autonomy; Beneficence; Non-Maleficence; Justice; Confidentiality; Professional Integrity and Honesty.
- Section 03 · Professional Boundaries in Osteopathic Practice
- Understanding Professional Boundaries; Types of Professional Boundaries; Boundary Risks in Osteopathic Practice; Maintaining Professional Boundaries; Recognising and Managing Boundary Concerns; Professional Boundaries and Fitness to Practise.
- Section 04 · Confidentiality and Privacy
- Understanding Confidentiality in Osteopathic Practice; Types of Confidential Information; Maintaining Confidentiality in Practice; Consent and Information Sharing; Limits of Confidentiality; Confidentiality Risks in Osteopathic Practice; Confidentiality and Fitness to Practise.
- Section 05 · Informed Consent and Communication
- Understanding Informed Consent in Osteopathic Practice; Elements of Valid Consent; Types of Consent in Osteopathic Practice; Consent as an Ongoing Process; Communication in Osteopathic Practice; Communication in Challenging Situations; Documentation of Consent and Communication; Consent, Communication, and Fitness to Practise.
- Section 06 · Ethical Decision-Making in Practice
- Understanding Ethical Decision-Making; Common Ethical Dilemmas in Osteopathic Practice; Ethical Decision-Making Framework; Seeking Support and Advice; Ethical Decision-Making and Communication; Ethical Decision-Making in Challenging Situations; Ethical Decision-Making and Fitness to Practise.
- Section 07 · Cultural Safety and Ethical Practice in New Zealand
- Understanding Cultural Safety in Osteopathic Practice; Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Healthcare Practice; Māori Health Perspectives in Osteopathic Care; Addressing Health Inequities; Communication and Cultural Safety; Cultural Safety in the Clinical Environment; Cultural Safety and Fitness to Practise.
- Section 08 · Ethics in Complaints, Competence Concerns, and Fitness to Practise
- Understanding Complaints in Osteopathic Practice; Ethical Responsibilities When a Complaint Arises; Understanding Competence Concerns; Fitness to Practise; Professional Behaviour During Complaints and Investigations; Insight and Reflection in Ethical Practice; Remediation and Ethical Improvement; Preventing Complaints and Competence Concerns; Ethics, Professionalism, and Public Trust.
- Section 09 · Reflective Practice, Insight, and Remediation
- Understanding Reflective Practice in Osteopathic Care; Developing Insight in Professional Practice; Structured Reflective Practice; Writing Effective Reflective Statements; Understanding Remediation; Demonstrating Effective Remediation; Reflective Practice, Insight, and Fitness to Practise; Embedding Reflective Practice in Daily Care.
- Section 10 · Conclusion and Key Takeaways
- Conclusion; Key Takeaways.
How to respond to an Osteopathic Council notification, complaint or allegation
The Council, a competence reviewer, a Professional Conduct Committee and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal all read a response for the same four parts. The course teaches each one.
The notes hold the technique and the visit; your response has to hold the reasoning a colleague would have heard.
- The obligations in playNamed in the Code’s words: the patient’s choice and their safety, their belief and the evidence, the neighbour’s convenience and the record.The course maps the four principles of health ethics onto the Code’s values and principles, so you can name them in the Council’s words.
- How you decided, aloneWhat you knew, what screening was done, which alternatives were offered, what was said about the evidence, and what you would have asked a colleague.Weak and strong responses to six New Zealand events show the difference.
- What it cost the patientIn their terms — the harm, the sessions, the trust — rather than in clinical language.The course shows how to describe the effect without arguing the complaint.
- What has changed, and who can confirm itWith dates: a mentor’s or peer’s report, a chaperone or third-person policy in writing, an audit of records, consent documentation or claims after an interval.This course is the dated item you attach — and, for a claim or a boundary allegation, remediation targeted to the lapse.
An acknowledgement followed by “but the patient wanted it” reads as the absence of insight.
Take advice from your indemnity insurer, your union or a lawyer before you respond to anyone.
Facing an Osteopathic Council investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200How this course helps with an Osteopathic Council investigation
Twelve responses to six events from New Zealand practice
A cervical technique without the risk discussed. A treatment continued on belief rather than evidence. A confidence carried to the rugby club. Notes written on Sunday and dated through the week. A patient of years who became a partner. A Māori patient’s reluctance to undress read as non-compliance. Each event has two responses in the course — the one that closed the matter and the one that went to a Committee. The osteopath who names the principle first, does not offer the technique or the town as a reason, and points to something dated is the one who continues.
What a reviewer or a Committee will weigh as remediation
Counts: this course’s dated certificate; CPD targeted to the principle concerned; a mentor’s or peer’s written reports — the colleague a solo practitioner otherwise lacks; a chaperone or third-person policy in writing; an audit of records, consent documentation or claims repeated after an interval; patient feedback gathered for the purpose; Māori-led cultural safety education where the concern engages it. Counts for little: hours on another subject, the patient or the town blamed, an apology for the complaint, and reflection that argues the case. For the stages from the first letter to the Tribunal, see the Council and Board investigation process, explained.
Read the primary sources
- Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 — the Act
- Code of Conduct for Osteopaths — The code
- Capabilities for Osteopathic Practice — Standards
- Informed consent: guidelines for osteopaths — Guidelines
- The complaints process — Fitness to practise
- Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal — decisions
Who wrote it
Dr Shehzad Iqbal
Course author and facilitator, Healthcare Ethics New Zealand
Dr Iqbal has designed and delivered ethics, probity and professionalism training for healthcare professionals since 2020, working with registrants across regulated health professions, online and face to face. He combines clinical practice with formal postgraduate training in healthcare law and ethics.
MBBS · MRCS · MRCGP · Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics, University of Dundee
Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal. Last reviewed .
In short
Ethics and Ethical Standards for Osteopaths is a 2-hour self-paced remediation course for osteopaths registered with the Osteopathic Council of New Zealand facing a notification, investigation, complaint or allegation, mapped to the Council’s Code of Conduct for Osteopaths, its Capabilities and its guidelines on consent and records. It is written for the practitioner who decides alone: the four ethical principles as they arise in a closed treatment room and, often, a close community, in the Code’s own words and through Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the situations that produce notifications about osteopaths — consent to touch, the evidence and belief, confidentiality where patients are also neighbours, candour after an adverse event with no witness, informed refusal, honesty in notes and ACC claims, boundaries, treating neighbours, scope and fitness to practise. Six New Zealand case comparisons show the response that ends a matter beside the one that does not. Ten sections with a reflective quiz after each of the first nine, a post-course assessment, and a dated certificate from Healthcare Ethics Courses for your Continuing Competence Programme. Remediation, not advice: no course decides a matter, and your indemnity insurer, professional association or a lawyer should read anything before it goes to the Council.
Four principles, one practitioner, one room
Osteopathic ethics is decided by one practitioner alone with a patient, and the Code of Conduct for Osteopaths is written for that solitude. Its four values — respect, partnership, trust and integrity — and eight principles do the work a colleague or a receptionist would otherwise do, and the four principles the course is built on — autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice — map onto them directly. The visit that produces a complaint is the one in which they pulled apart, and the Council’s question is whether the osteopath saw it and decided.
Three things are osteopathy-specific in New Zealand. The room: with no third party, consent is a conversation the record has to show, and draping and a chaperone offered are part of it. The community: confidentiality and boundaries are tested wherever patients are also known socially. The model: osteopathy’s whole-person account of the body sits beside an evidence base that does not reach everything it claims, and beneficence asks the osteopath to work in that gap with candour.
What these words mean
The three terms that decide where a matter goes, and the other words the course uses.
- Professional Conduct Committee
- The committee the Council or Board appoints under s 71 of the Act to investigate a conduct concern: two members of the profession and a layperson with a legal adviser. It asks for your written response, may hear from you, and recommends anything from no further action, through counselling and a competence or health review, to a charge before the Tribunal (s 80).
- Professional misconduct
- The Tribunal’s ground under s 100 of the Act: malpractice or negligence in your scope of practice, or conduct that has brought or was likely to bring discredit to the profession. Dishonesty, a boundary breach and a breach of confidence are among the findings made under it.
- Informed consent
- Agreement to treatment by a patient who has capacity, has been told what a reasonable person in their position would want to know — the technique, its risk, the alternative, the undressing, the cost — and is free to decline. The Council’s guideline and a patient’s legal right; in a hands-on profession, a conversation and not a form.
- The three routes under the HPCA Act
- Fitness to practise is the phrase practitioners use for the whole process. Under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 the Council or Board takes one of three routes: a competence review (your practice against the required standard); the health process — the Act’s fitness to practise provisions, for impairment by a mental or physical condition; or a referral of your conduct to a Professional Conduct Committee, which can lay a charge of professional misconduct before the Tribunal. Which route your letter names tells you how the matter is being treated.
The four principles, confidentiality, the evidence gap and the other terms the course uses
- Autonomy
- The patient’s right to decide about their treatment on adequate information and without pressure. In osteopathy: consent to touch that is explained and revisited, draping offered, the refusal respected and recorded. Breached by proceeding without proper consent and by treating a refusal as non-compliance.
- Beneficence
- The obligation to act for the patient’s benefit as the evidence can support it, rather than as the patient’s belief or the osteopathic model would prefer. The principle tested by treatment continued on belief.
- Non-maleficence
- The obligation not to cause avoidable harm by act or omission: screening before a cervical technique, working within scope and the Capabilities, referral when needed, adverse events disclosed, not treating while unfit. The principle a competence review engages.
- Justice
- Fairness between patients and to the public: attention on need, honesty in claims on ACC, truthful claims about what osteopathy can do, the neighbour treated like any other patient. Engaged whenever the practice needs the visits and whenever the town is small.
- Confidentiality
- The duty to keep health information private under the Code and the Health Information Privacy Code, tested in osteopathy by the close community, the family that all come to you, and the room that is also the office. Not absolute: disclosure is permitted in defined circumstances and on consent, and the course covers how a decision either way is made and recorded.
- Adverse event
- Harm arising from treatment — from a strain to a serious injury after a cervical technique — usually with no witness. The Code’s value of integrity requires openness with the patient, the accident compensation scheme’s treatment-injury route is how the patient is compensated, and disclosure is what lets them claim.
- Evidence gap
- The distance between what the osteopathic model describes and what the evidence supports for a given condition. Working in it with candour — saying what can and cannot be promised — is an obligation of beneficence and of integrity, and the course treats it as the profession’s characteristic ethical question.
The provisions an ethics concern about an osteopath engages
The Osteopathic Council publishes its own standards of ethical conduct under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, and an ethics notification about an osteopath is measured against them. These are the standard itself and the provisions of the Act the notification runs under.
Osteopathic Council — Code of Conduct for Osteopaths
The Code of Conduct for Osteopaths (January 2023): four values — respect, partnership, trust, integrity — and eight principles, read with the Council’s guidelines on informed consent and clinical record keeping. The document the Council reads your response against. Read it.
For this course: The course maps the four principles onto the Council’s Code of Conduct for Osteopaths, so that a response cites the standard the Council’s Committee will apply.
Section 71 — referral to a Professional Conduct Committee
An ethics concern about consent, a boundary, a claim or a confidence is a conduct concern, and is referred to a Professional Conduct Committee — two osteopaths, one from your area of practice, and a layperson, with an investigator and a legal adviser — which meets you at a recorded meeting. Read it.
For this course: An ethics concern about an osteopath — consent to hands-on treatment, a boundary, a claim, a confidence — is referred here as conduct, and the course explains what the Committee will look at.
Section 100 — the grounds of discipline
The Tribunal may discipline for professional misconduct — malpractice or negligence, or conduct likely to bring discredit to the profession — among other grounds. Sexual remarks and touching during treatment, and failure to drape, have been found to reach it. Read it.
For this course: Boundary breaches in hands-on treatment, dishonesty in claims and consent failures can each reach this threshold.
Section 101 — the penalties
Censure, conditions, suspension for up to three years, cancellation of registration, a fine of up to NZ$30,000 and costs — and the Tribunal has ordered education in ethics, professional boundaries and informed consent, mentoring and a chaperone condition. Insight and remediation are weighed every time. Read it.
For this course: The Tribunal’s penalty decisions about osteopaths weigh insight and the evidence of change; the course is dated evidence of the change, and shows how to set out the insight in your own reflection.
Also engaged: Section 118 — the Council sets the Code and the Capabilities a complaint is measured against · Section 80 — what a Professional Conduct Committee may recommend, from counselling to a charge · Section 36 — a competence review where a pattern of decisions, not one, is the concern.
What happens after an ethics complaint reaches the Osteopathic Council
The same stages as any complaint about an osteopath. At every one the reader asks whether you saw the ethical question, decided it for reasons you can state, told the patient what they needed to know, and have reconsidered — with dated evidence someone else can confirm.
The complaint reaches the Council — or the Commissioner first
A patient, the Commissioner, a colleague or an employer raises the concern. A complaint that your care affected a patient goes to the Health and Disability Commissioner first, and the Council can act on public safety meanwhile. Then it sends you the complaint, without the complainant’s contact details, and asks for your response.
The Council decides the route
No further action, a competence review, a health review or a Professional Conduct Committee. In the Council’s latest annual report, four of six complaints closed with no further action after the osteopath responded — the response is where most matters are decided.
A competence review
You are asked for information about your practice and professional development, and a review against the Capabilities may follow — with a competence programme, conditions, an examination or supervision where the standard is not met. The complainant takes no part.
The Health Committee
Where a condition may affect your practice, the Committee may require a medical examination the Council pays for, and may set conditions or suspend you while you cannot practise — a health process, not a disciplinary one.
A Professional Conduct Committee
Two osteopaths, one from your area of practice, and a layperson, with an investigator and a legal adviser. You receive the evidence and meet the Committee at a recorded meeting of about two hours, usually near where the events happened; it may recommend counselling or a review, or lay a charge.
The Tribunal
A legally qualified chair, three osteopaths and a layperson hear the charge, usually in public, with an appeal to the High Court. Sexual misconduct has ended registrations, and inappropriate touching brought a suspension with a chaperone condition; any order is reviewed against what has changed.
Facing an Osteopathic Council investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200Not an osteopath? New Zealand regulates 18 professions under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, and the process is the same for all — courses for every registered profession →
Frequently asked questions
What does the Council want in a written response to an ethics notification?
The reasoning: which principles were engaged, where they conflicted, which prevailed and why, what the patient was told about risk, the evidence and the alternative, what the effect was, and what you would weigh differently now — with the value or principle of the Code you fell short of named by you first. A response that describes only the principle you followed reads as though you never saw the other.
Should someone read my response before I send it?
Yes. Your indemnity insurer, your professional association or a lawyer should see anything before it goes to the Council, a reviewer, a Professional Conduct Committee, the Tribunal, ACC or your employer; for a practitioner who often works without a colleague nearby, that conversation is the colleague you do not otherwise have. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no course determines the outcome of a matter.
Will the Osteopathic Council or a Committee accept this course as remediation?
No provider is accredited by the Osteopathic Council, and no course decides a matter. What the Council, a reviewer, a Committee and the Tribunal weigh is dated, targeted remediation with reflection that engages the standard — and this course is written to the Code of Conduct for Osteopaths and the Council’s guidelines, so the connection is plain. The Tribunal has itself ordered education in ethics, professional boundaries and informed consent. Check the wording of any direction with your indemnity insurer, professional association or lawyer before you rely on it.
A patient had a serious adverse event after a cervical technique and no one else was in the room. What will the Council look at?
Whether the technique was within your competence, whether the screening the evidence expects was done, whether the risk was explained and an alternative offered so that the consent was real, whether the event was disclosed to the patient and the accident compensation route explained, and whether the record shows all of that — because with no witness the record is what the Council has. The course’s sections on consent to touch and candour after an adverse event are written for exactly this notification.
The notification is about my notes and an ACC claim. Is an ethics course the right one?
It is one of the two. Probity has its own section here — honesty in records and claims — and notes dated through the week and written at the weekend, or a claim the record does not carry, engage the Code’s principle of integrity whatever the explanation. The Professionalism course covers the same event from the conduct side; many osteopaths facing a claims complaint take both.
The patient believes the treatment helps and wants to continue. The evidence is thin. What is the ethical position?
Beneficence means the benefit the evidence can support, and integrity means saying so. Continuing a treatment the patient values is not wrong in itself; continuing it while implying more than the evidence carries, or without a review point, is. The course treats the gap between the osteopathic model and the evidence as the profession’s characteristic ethical question and shows how to work in it with candour.
Someone mentioned a patient’s treatment to me at the rugby club and I responded. Is that a breach?
If you confirmed, added or corrected anything about the patient, yes. The Code asks you to respect patients’ privacy and confidentiality, the Health Information Privacy Code applies, and neither shrinks where the community is small or because the other person already knew. The course covers the small-town conversation and how a defensible deflection is worded.
Is cultural safety really an ethical standard for osteopaths?
Yes. Partnership is one of the Code’s four values, respecting patients’ cultural needs and values is one of its principles, and cultural safety is a Capability. The Council’s expectations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi cover how the head and the body are approached, who is in the room, and how a Māori patient’s reluctance to undress is read. A complaint about tikanga ignored or whānau kept out is read as an ethical failure, and Māori-led cultural safety education is the remediation that fits it.
How is this course different from the Professionalism course for osteopaths?
This course is about the reasoning behind a decision made alone — consent to touch, the evidence and belief, confidentiality where patients are neighbours, candour. The Professionalism course is about conduct — draping and remarks in a room with no witness, boundaries, honesty in records and claims, communication, treating neighbours, scope. An osteopath whose complaint says a decision was wrong usually starts here.
How long does it take, and how long do I have access?
The course is 2 CPD hours, self-paced, with twelve months’ access from purchase. The certificate is issued on completion, dated, with the course title and the CPD hours, for your Continuing Competence Programme, a competence programme or a response.
Courses that work alongside this one
Notifications rarely raise one issue. These are the courses that pair with this one.
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Osteopaths
Professionalism course for NZ osteopaths facing an Osteopathic Council notification or Professional Conduct Committee. Code of Conduct. 2 CPD hours.
Financial Integrity for Healthcare Professionals
Financial integrity course for NZ health practitioners facing a billing, fee, ACC or third-party payer concern. Financial consent and conflicts. 2 CPD hrs.
Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice
Consent, privacy and the presence of another person during an examination: for NZ practitioners facing an allegation about an examination. 2 CPD hours.
Social Media Professionalism and Boundaries for Healthcare Professionals
Social media course for NZ health practitioners facing a notification about a post, online contact with a patient, or advertising. 2 CPD hours, NZ$200.
Documentation for Healthcare Professionals
Clinical documentation and health records course for NZ health practitioners facing a notification about records, late entries or amendments. 2 CPD hours.
Dealing with a Complaint or Investigation Professionally
Responding to a complaint, notification, competence review or conduct committee in NZ: the first letter, the meeting, what to write. 2 CPD hours.
Insight for Fitness to Practise
Asked to show insight after a notification? The staged model, the four components a Council or Tribunal assesses, and what undermines it. 2 CPD hours.
Start today, finish at your own pace
Immediate access on purchase. Twelve months' access, a dated certificate on completion, and 2 CPD hours issued by Healthcare Ethics Courses.