Council or Board notification · All 18 responsible authorities
Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice for Health Practitioners facing a Council or Board investigation, complaint or allegation
The allegation concerns what happened in the examination room — the explanation, the consent, the chaperone or the patient’s privacy.
- Consent — an examination without proper informed consent
- Explanation — the reason for the examination not explained first
- Chaperone — not offered, or the patient’s choice not recorded
- Privacy — undressing without a gown, a screen or draping
- Boundaries — a boundaries breach with a patient
- Capacity — a patient’s capacity, willingness or culture assumed
- Record — the explanation, the consent or the offer not written down
- Any other — concern about an examination, consent or privacy
Facing an allegation of unprofessional conduct or misconduct like these — from the Council or Board, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal?
Help with a Council or Board 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
- Every registered profession
- CPD certificate
- Bulk buy: any 5 for NZ$850 · any 10 for NZ$1,400
At a glance
- Who it is for
- Any registered practitioner facing a Council or Board notification, complaint or allegation, a Health and Disability Commissioner complaint, an interim order or a Professional Conduct Committee investigation about an examination — consent, the explanation, the chaperone, privacy, dignity or conduct in the room
- Authorities covered
- All 18 responsible authorities under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, their Professional Conduct Committees and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
- Length
- 10 sections, 82 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
A patient has complained about an examination
What was explained, what they agreed to, whether they were covered, whether anyone else was there, what was said. The authorities read a concern about an examination as a question of process rather than of clinical judgement; this course is how you reconstruct the consultation step by step — and show the protocol that now protects every patient.
Consent is the concern
An examination begun before the reason was explained, consent assumed from an earlier visit, an examination that went further than described, a patient who said stop. Consent is a process in every authority’s standard and in Rights 6 and 7 of the Code of Rights; the course teaches it in ordinary and complex situations, and the record that shows it.
The chaperone is the concern
Not offered, offered and not recorded, a relative used in place of a trained chaperone, an examination continued after the patient declined. The course covers when to offer, how to explain the role, who can act, the patient’s choice and refusal, and what to document every time.
An allegation about your conduct in the room
A touch or a remark that was not clinical, undressing without explanation or draping, an examination not clinically indicated. The authority may impose a chaperone condition or suspend while a Committee investigates, and the Tribunal has cancelled registrations for conduct of this kind. The course covers boundaries during sensitive care and the response that a Committee reads.
A complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner
A complaint about a patient’s care goes to the Commissioner first, and your Council or Board can act on public safety meanwhile. The Commissioner’s usual recommendations — an apology, an audit repeated after an interval, a written reflection, training — are the remediation this course is built for.
Before a Professional Conduct Committee
Members of your own profession and a layperson, with a legal adviser, investigate independently, read your response beside the record, and usually meet you. They can recommend counselling or a review, decide on no further action or conciliation, or lay a charge before the Tribunal.
The concerns this course speaks to
Consent assumed, or not revisited
An examination without proper informed consent: agreement assumed from an earlier visit or from silence, consent not revisited when the examination went further than described, a patient who said stop and was not heard. Consent is a process, not a signature, in every authority’s standard and in Right 7 of the Code of Rights; the course treats it as ongoing communication and shows how to record it.
The reason not explained
An examination begun before the patient knew why it was needed, what it would involve and what the alternatives were. Right 6 of the Code of Rights is the right to be fully informed, and the Commissioner has recommended consent and documentation training where a treatment went ahead without the risks explained. The course covers the explanation that comes first.
The chaperone not offered, or the choice not recorded
No chaperone offered for an intimate examination or one the patient may regard as intimate, a relative used instead of a trained chaperone, the offer made and the patient’s choice not written down. A refusal recorded protects both; the course covers when to offer, who can act, refusal and what to document.
Privacy in the room
Undressing without a gown, a screen, draping or a moment alone; a door left open; a conversation others could hear. The Tribunal has treated failure to drape as part of professional misconduct, and privacy is the first of the three protections the course teaches.
Professional and ethical boundaries during sensitive care
A boundaries breach with a patient: a touch or a remark that was not clinical, an examination not clinically indicated, care given in a setting that was not professional. The Tribunal has cancelled registrations for touching and remarks of this kind and ordered chaperone conditions and education in boundaries and informed consent; the course covers communication as a safeguard during sensitive care.
Capacity, vulnerability and culture
A patient’s capacity assumed rather than assessed, a vulnerable patient not supported, tikanga not respected — the head, the body, who is present, whānau where the patient wishes. Capacity is assessed for this decision and supported where it is uncertain; cultural competence is a standard every authority sets, and the course treats both as protections rather than additions.
The record that does not show it
The explanation, the consent, the chaperone offer and the patient’s choice not written down at the time. What the authorities read for is the record, and the remediation is a protocol followed and recorded every time, with an audit of records repeated after an interval.
Probity, health and any other concern
An account of the examination that did not match the record or the chaperone’s, a condition that affected conduct in the room. Any examination or consent allegation is measured against your own authority’s consent standard and the Code of Rights, and the course reads the Medical Council, Dental Council and Physiotherapy Board standards in their own words.
Facing a Council or Board investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200What the course covers
Ten sections and 82 lessons, with a reflective quiz closing each of the first nine and a post-course assessment at the end.
Introduction to Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare
Eight lessons
Privacy and Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice
Nine lessons
Legal and Professional Frameworks for Privacy
Nine lessons
Understanding Consent in Healthcare
Nine lessons
Consent in Complex and High-Risk Situations
Nine lessons
Chaperones in Clinical Practice
Nine lessons
Boundaries, Professional Conduct, and Risk Prevention
Nine lessons
Complaints, Investigations, and Regulatory Expectations
Nine lessons
Reflection, Insight, and Remediation
Nine lessons
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Key takeaways and the post-course assessment
Show every lesson title
- Section 01 · Introduction to Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare
- Why Privacy, Consent and Chaperone Are Central to Healthcare Practice; Privacy as a Core Element of Patient Dignity; Consent as a Process, Not a One-Off Event; Why Consent Failures Commonly Occur; The Role of Chaperones in Protecting Patients and Professionals; Cultural, Personal, and Situational Sensitivity; Boundaries, Trust, and Professional Identity; Regulatory Expectations in New Zealand.
- Section 02 · Privacy and Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice
- What Privacy Means in Healthcare Settings; Confidentiality and Trust in the Therapeutic Relationship; Managing Privacy in Busy or Shared Clinical Environments; Privacy in Electronic Records and Digital Communication; Information Sharing Within Healthcare Teams; When Confidentiality May Be Limited; Cultural and Personal Considerations in Privacy; Privacy Breaches: Recognition and Response; Professional and Regulatory Expectations in New Zealand.
- Section 03 · Legal and Professional Frameworks for Privacy
- Why Frameworks Matter in Everyday Practice; Professional Standards and Ethical Expectations; Legal Duties Relating to Privacy; Reasonable Expectation of Privacy; Information Sharing for Care and Safety; When Disclosure May Be Justified Without Consent; Transparency With Patients About Information Use; Responding to Legal or Regulatory Requests for Information; Privacy Frameworks in Complaints and Investigations.
- Section 04 · Understanding Consent in Healthcare
- What Consent Means in Healthcare Practice; Consent as an Ongoing Communication Process; The Core Elements of Valid Consent; Providing Information for Informed Consent; Assessing Capacity in Clinical Practice; Voluntariness and Avoiding Assumptions; Documenting Consent Appropriately; Consent and Professional Accountability; Common Pitfalls in Consent Practice.
- Section 05 · Consent in Complex and High-Risk Situations
- Why Consent Becomes More Complex in Certain Situations; Consent for Intimate Examinations and Procedures; Consent Involving Vulnerable Patients; Cultural Considerations and Supported Decision-Making; Consent When Capacity Is Uncertain or Fluctuating; Emergency Situations and Consent Limitations; Refusal of Consent and Respecting Patient Choice; Documentation in High-Risk Consent Situations; Regulatory Expectations in Complex Consent Cases.
- Section 06 · Chaperones in Clinical Practice
- What Is a Chaperone and Why Chaperones Matter; When a Chaperone Should Be Offered or Used; Explaining the Role of the Chaperone to the Patient; Patient Choice and Refusal of a Chaperone; Who Can Act as a Chaperone; Conduct During Examinations When a Chaperone Is Present; Documentation of Chaperone Use; Common Risks and Pitfalls in Chaperone Practice; Regulatory Expectations in New Zealand.
- Section 07 · Boundaries, Professional Conduct, and Risk Prevention
- Understanding Professional Boundaries in Healthcare; Why Boundary Issues Commonly Lead to Complaints; Maintaining Clear Physical and Behavioural Boundaries; Communication as a Boundary-Safeguarding Tool; Documentation and Boundary Protection; Preventing Misunderstandings and Allegations; Managing Boundary Challenges and Unclear Situations; Professional Conduct During Sensitive Situations; Regulatory Expectations and Boundary Concerns.
- Section 08 · Complaints, Investigations, and Regulatory Expectations
- How Privacy, Consent, and Chaperone Issues Lead to Complaints; Investigations and What Is Examined; Individual Accountability and Professional Responsibility; Professional Behaviour During Complaints and Investigations; Insight and Learning as Central Considerations; Remediation Following Boundary or Consent Concerns; Documentation and Evidence in Investigations; Patterns of Concern and Escalation; Regulatory Expectations in New Zealand.
- Section 09 · Reflection, Insight, and Remediation
- Why Reflection Is Essential in Privacy, Consent, and Chaperone Practice; Understanding Insight in Boundary-Sensitive Practice; Reflecting on Patient Experience and Power Imbalance; Reflecting on Process, Not Just Outcome; Writing High-Quality Reflective Accounts; From Reflection to Meaningful Remediation; Demonstrating Behaviour Change Over Time; Rebuilding Patient and Professional Trust; Reflection, Remediation, and Fitness to Practise.
- Section 10 · Conclusion and Key Takeaways
- Conclusion; Key Takeaways.
How to respond to a Council or Board notification, complaint or allegation
Every Council or Board, the Commissioner, a Professional Conduct Committee and the Tribunal read a response about an examination as a reconstructed consultation. The course teaches the four parts.
A concern about an examination is a question of process, not of clinical judgement.
- The consultation, step by stepThe reason given, the information provided, the capacity and voluntariness, the chaperone offered and the choice, the privacy arranged, the conduct and the communication during the examination, and the record made at the time.The course teaches the reconstruction in the order the consultation happened.
- The step missed, and the standardThe step missed, named by you from your authority’s own consent standard and the Code of Rights — process, not outcome.The course reads every authority’s consent and examination standards side by side.
- The patient’s experienceIn their terms: the exposure, the fear, the trust, the power imbalance in the room.The course shows reflection on patient experience and power imbalance.
- What is now built into every consultationA consent and chaperone protocol followed and recorded, an audit of records repeated, CPD on consent and boundaries, supervision with reports.This course is the dated item you attach — and it names the other evidence.
A refusal recorded is a protection for both; a refusal unrecorded is a gap.
Take advice from your indemnity insurer, your union or a lawyer before you respond to anyone.
Facing a Council or Board investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200How this course helps with a Council or Board investigation
Three protections in every consultation — privacy, consent, chaperone — the frameworks behind them, boundaries during sensitive care, and the response and remediation that answer a concern.
It explains the frameworks
Professional standards and ethical expectations, the legal duties relating to privacy, the reasonable expectation of privacy, information sharing for care and safety, when disclosure may be justified without consent, transparency with patients about information use, responding to legal or regulatory requests, and how the frameworks are used in a complaint or an investigation — with every authority’s standard on consent and intimate examinations read in its own words.
It teaches consent in ordinary and complex situations
What consent means, consent as ongoing communication, the core elements of valid consent, providing information, assessing capacity, voluntariness and avoiding assumptions, documentation, accountability, and the common pitfalls. Then complex and high-risk consent: intimate examinations and procedures, vulnerable patients, cultural considerations and supported decision-making, uncertain or fluctuating capacity, emergencies, refusal and respecting choice, and documentation in high-risk situations.
It covers chaperones and boundaries during sensitive care
What a chaperone is and why they matter; when to offer one; explaining the role; patient choice and refusal; who can act; conduct during the examination; what to document. Then boundaries during sensitive care: physical and behavioural boundaries, communication as a safeguard, documentation as protection, and preventing misunderstandings and allegations.
It brings it to the complaint, the investigation and the response
How privacy, consent and chaperone concerns become complaints; what an investigation examines; individual accountability; reflection on the patient’s experience and the power imbalance, on process rather than outcome; and the remediation that answers a concern. Counts: a consent and chaperone protocol now followed and recorded in every relevant consultation; an audit of your records for the explanation, the consent and the chaperone offer, repeated after an interval; this course’s dated certificate and CPD on consent and boundaries; supervision with reports where the authority asks; time without a further concern. Counts for little: a statement that the examination was clinically necessary, a chaperone protocol written and not recorded, an apology that describes the patient’s reaction rather than the step missed. 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
- Every Council and Board, in one place — Responsible authorities
- Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020
- Medical Council — Good medical practice
- Dental Council — Standards Framework for Oral Health Practitioners
- Physiotherapy Board — Physiotherapy Standards framework
- 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
Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice is a two-hour remediation course, self-paced, for any practitioner facing a notification, investigation, complaint or allegation before one of New Zealand’s 18 responsible authorities. It is organised around the consultation: the three protections every authority expects — privacy for the patient’s dignity, consent as a process, and a chaperone offered, explained and recorded — the professional and legal frameworks behind them, consent in ordinary and in complex and high-risk situations, chaperones in practice, boundaries during sensitive care, how concerns about an examination arise and are investigated, and the reflection on process and the remediation that answer one. 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 recertification. Remediation, not advice: the course decides no matter, and your indemnity insurer, your union or association or a lawyer should read anything before it goes to your authority.
What New Zealand’s Councils and Boards expect in the examination room
Three protections in every consultation — privacy, consent and the chaperone — and every authority has written them down. Every authority’s standard under section 118 of the Act addresses informed consent; the Medical Council publishes statements on informed consent and on sexual boundaries that cover chaperones and the presence of a third party; the Dental Council has an informed consent practice standard; the Physiotherapy Board’s standards address consent and dignity during hands-on treatment. Beside them, Rights 6 and 7 of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights give every patient the right to be fully informed and to make an informed choice. A concern about an examination is read as a question of process — was the reason explained, was consent obtained and revisited, was privacy protected, was a chaperone offered and the choice recorded — and it is conduct.
Two things are New Zealand-specific. The first is tikanga: for a Māori patient privacy and consent include the head, the body, who is present and whānau where the patient wishes, and cultural competence is a standard every authority sets. The second is the interim order: where the concern is about an intimate examination the Act lets your authority impose a chaperone condition or suspend while a Committee investigates, because the risk it asks about is to patients still being seen — and a practitioner who has already adopted the protocol has answered the order in advance.
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.
- Chaperone
- A person present during an examination to protect the patient’s dignity and the practitioner’s position — ideally a trained member of staff rather than a relative. Offered, explained, and the offer and the patient’s choice recorded every time.
- 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.
Privacy, capacity, voluntariness, intimate examination, refusal, tikanga and the other terms the course uses
- Privacy
- The patient’s dignity while they undress, are examined and are spoken to: a screen, a cover, a moment alone, a closed door, a voice that others cannot hear. The first of the three protections, and the one busy environments test daily.
- Informed consent
- Agreement by a patient who has the information, the capacity and the freedom to decide, given before the examination and revisited as it goes on. A process rather than a signature, and every authority’s standard says so.
- Capacity
- The patient’s ability to understand, retain, weigh and communicate a decision about this examination now. Assessed, not assumed; supported where it is uncertain or fluctuating; and documented.
- Voluntariness
- Agreement given freely, without pressure from the practitioner, the setting, the time or a family member. Absent where the patient felt they could not refuse, whatever they said.
- Intimate examination
- An examination of the breasts, genitalia or rectum, and any examination the patient may regard as intimate — which varies by person and culture. The examination for which every authority expects the explanation, the consent and the chaperone offer to be explicit and recorded.
- Refusal
- The patient’s decision not to have the examination, or not to have a chaperone, or to stop part-way. Respected, recorded, and the alternative offered; a refusal of a chaperone does not oblige the practitioner to proceed.
- Tikanga
- Māori customary practice as it bears on the examination room — the head, the body, who is present, whānau where the patient wishes. Part of privacy and consent for a Māori patient, and part of cultural competence for every authority.
- Remediation
- Change someone else can confirm: a consent and chaperone protocol now followed and documented, an audit of records for the explanation and the offer, supervision with reports, CPD on consent and boundaries, and time without a further concern.
The provisions an examination or consent concern engages
Consent, privacy and the conduct of an intimate examination are each governed by a standard your Council or Board publishes, and a concern about any of them is conduct. These are the provisions of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 such a concern runs under, the standards, and the privacy law that runs alongside.
Section 71 — referral to a Professional Conduct Committee
Where the concern is about conduct the authority refers it to a Professional Conduct Committee — two members of the profession and a layperson, with a legal adviser — which investigates independently and asks for your written response. A consent or examination concern is conduct, and the Committee reads the record of what the patient was told and agreed to. Read it.
For this course: An allegation about an examination is a conduct matter for a Committee, and the course explains what the Committee will ask about — the explanation given, the offer made, the record.
Section 69 — interim suspension pending a conduct investigation
While a Professional Conduct Committee investigates, or a charge is pending, the authority may suspend the practising certificate or impose interim conditions where it is necessary to protect the public. Where the concern is about an intimate examination, a condition requiring a chaperone for every examination is the usual form; it is a precaution, not a finding, and it is reviewed. Read it.
For this course: An allegation about conduct during an examination can attract interim suspension or a chaperone condition, and the course explains why and what follows.
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. Conduct that discredits the profession is the ground where an examination was not clinically indicated, a touch or a remark was not clinical, or a patient was undressed without explanation or draping. Read it.
For this course: Conduct during an examination that fails the standard can reach the threshold of discipline, and the course explains the Tribunal’s approach.
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. The Tribunal has cancelled registrations in examination cases and ordered chaperone conditions, mentoring and education in boundaries and informed consent; a practitioner who has already adopted the protocol has answered such an order in advance. Read it.
For this course: The Tribunal’s penalties in examination cases are at the serious end, and its decisions weigh the safeguards that were or were not used.
Also engaged: Section 118 — every authority’s standard addresses informed consent · Section 80 — counselling and a review where the failure was of process and is understood · Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 — the information gathered in an examination · Medical Council — the statements on informed consent and on sexual boundaries, chaperones and a third party · Dental Council — the informed consent practice standard · Physiotherapy Board — the standards on consent and dignity during hands-on treatment.
How a concern about an examination moves
The same stages under one Act, whichever authority registers you — and at every one the reader reconstructs the consultation from the record: the explanation, the consent, the chaperone, the privacy.
The complaint: the patient, a chaperone or a colleague
A patient complains about an examination — what was explained, what they agreed to, whether they were covered, whether anyone else was there, what was said — or a chaperone or a colleague raises it. A complaint about a patient’s care goes to the Health and Disability Commissioner first, measured against the Code of Rights; your authority can act on public safety meanwhile.
The Registrar — and an interim order
The Registrar or a delegated committee reads the complaint beside your response and the record, and asks whether patients still being seen are at risk. Where the concern is about an intimate examination the authority may impose interim conditions — a chaperone for every examination — or suspend while a Committee investigates; a precaution, not a finding, and reviewed.
A competence review
Where the failure was of process rather than intent — consent assumed rather than obtained, a chaperone not offered as a matter of course, a record that never shows the explanation — the authority may review your practice against the standards for your scope and order a programme, conditions or supervision.
The health route
Where a condition lay beneath conduct in the room — and was declared — the authority may deal with it under its health route, with support. A declaration made now, with a plan behind it, moves the matter toward it.
A Professional Conduct Committee
Members of your profession and a layperson, with a legal adviser, read the record of what the patient was told and agreed to, the chaperone offer and the patient’s choice, and meet you. Where the failure was of process and is understood, counselling and a review are on their list; where the examination was not clinically indicated, a charge follows.
The Tribunal
A legally qualified chair, three members of your profession and a layperson hear the charge, usually in public. The Tribunal has cancelled registrations for touching and remarks that were not clinical and for undressing without explanation or draping, and ordered chaperone conditions, mentoring and education in boundaries and informed consent; any order is reviewed against what has changed.
Facing a Council or Board investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200This course is written for every registered profession under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 — the process is the same for all. Ten professions also have Ethics and Professionalism courses written to their own Council or Board’s standard. Find the courses for your profession →
Frequently asked questions
What should my written response contain?
The consultation reconstructed step by step: the reason given, the information provided, the capacity and voluntariness, the chaperone offered and the choice, the privacy arranged, the conduct and the communication during the examination, and the record made at the time; the step missed, named by you from your authority’s own standard; the patient’s experience in their terms; and what is now built into every consultation, with evidence. The course’s ninth section covers the reflective account.
What does remediation look like — and will my Council or Board accept this course as part of it?
A consent and chaperone protocol now followed and documented in every relevant consultation; an audit of your records for the explanation, the consent and the chaperone offer, repeated; CPD on consent and on boundaries; supervision with reports where the authority asks for it; and time without a further concern. Each is concrete. No provider is accredited by any Council or Board, and no course decides a matter. What every authority, a Committee and the Tribunal weigh is dated, targeted remediation with reflection that engages your own code — and this course is written to the ground every authority’s standard shares on this subject, so the connection to yours is plain. The Tribunal has itself ordered education in ethics, boundaries and informed consent as part of its penalties. Check the wording of any direction with your indemnity insurer, union, professional association or lawyer before you rely on it.
Should I take advice before I respond?
Yes — before anything goes to your Council or Board, your employer, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Tribunal, and before any contact with the patient about the concern. Your indemnity insurer, your union or professional association, or a lawyer will read a response before it is sent. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no course determines the outcome of a matter.
The examination was clinically necessary and done properly. Why is there a concern?
Because the authorities read a concern about an examination as a question of process rather than of clinical judgement: was the reason explained, was consent obtained and revisited, was privacy protected, was a chaperone offered and the choice recorded. A necessary examination with a step missed is a concern of this kind, and the course treats reflection on process, not outcome, as the key to answering it.
When do I have to offer a chaperone?
For any intimate examination, and for any examination the patient may regard as intimate — which depends on the person and their culture as much as on the body part. Every authority’s standard expects the offer to be made, explained and recorded, whatever the patient decides, and the course’s chaperone section covers when, how, who can act and what to document.
The patient declined a chaperone. Was I right to proceed?
Where the offer was made properly and the refusal recorded, proceeding can be right — and the course covers when a practitioner may decline to proceed without one. What the authorities read for is the record: the offer, the explanation, the patient’s choice, in the notes at the time. A refusal recorded is a protection for both; a refusal unrecorded is a gap a review looks for.
Consent was given at the start. Does it need to be repeated?
Revisited, yes. Consent is a process in every authority’s standard: the patient may change their mind, the examination may go further than first described, and a patient who says stop has withdrawn it. The course treats consent as ongoing communication and covers what to say as an examination proceeds and how to record it.
The patient’s capacity was uncertain. What should I have done?
Assessed it for this decision, supported it where it could be supported — time, information, an advocate, whānau where the patient wished — and documented the assessment and the decision. The course’s section on complex consent covers uncertain and fluctuating capacity, vulnerable patients and supported decision-making, and the remediation is the assessment now made and recorded every time.
How does tikanga come into an examination?
As part of privacy and consent for a Māori patient: the head, the body, who is present, whānau where the patient wishes, and the explanation given in a way the patient can accept. Cultural competence is a standard every authority sets, and the course treats cultural, personal and situational sensitivity as a protection rather than an addition.
How is this different from the Confidentiality course, and the Professional Boundaries course?
This course is the examination and the consultation: dignity in the room, consent as a process, the chaperone, and boundaries during sensitive care. Confidentiality is information — what is confidential, where it leaks, how it is shared. Professional Boundaries is the relationship over time — drift, the four kinds of breach, and reflective logs. A practitioner whose concern is what happened in the room starts here.
Which Council or Board is this course written for?
All eighteen. Every authority under the Act has a standard on consent, the Code of Rights applies to every practitioner, and every concern about an examination travels the same conduct route. The course reads the Medical Council, Dental Council, Physiotherapy Board and other standards in their own words and the rest alongside.
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 a response, a portfolio or your recertification.
Courses that work alongside this one
Notifications rarely raise one issue. These are the courses that pair with this one.
Professional Boundaries Course
A boundary notification in NZ: where the risk comes from, dual relationships, another person in the room, colleagues and online conduct. 2 CPD hours.
Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice
Confidentiality and privacy course for NZ health practitioners facing a notification or privacy concern under the Health Information Privacy Code. 2 hours.
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.
Effective Communication for Healthcare Professionals
Communication course for NZ health practitioners facing a notification about manner, omission, honesty, explanation or handover. 2 CPD hours, NZ$200.
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.
Remediation for Fitness to Practise
Remediation after a Council or Board notification: root cause not symptom, SMART goals, the seven parts of a written plan, evidence of change. 2 CPD hours.
Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice
This course. Conduct, boundaries, records, probity and communication under Good medical practice, and the evidenced remediation that answers a notification.
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.