Pharmacy Council notification · Written to Code of Ethics
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Pharmacists for Pharmacists facing a Pharmacy Council investigation, complaint or allegation
The allegation concerns your professionalism, behaviour or conduct as a pharmacist.
- Communication — a concern brushed off, or counselling not given
- Dishonesty — a claim, register or declaration that is not true
- Errors — the wrong drug, strength or directions supplied
- Supervision — unqualified staff left to dispense unsupervised
- Boundaries — a boundaries breach with a patient or a colleague
- Confidentiality — a patient’s medicine discussed at the counter or online
- Public statements — misleading claims, advertising or misinformation
- Any other — professional concern or allegation of unprofessional conduct
Facing an allegation of unprofessional behaviour or misconduct like these — from the Pharmacy Council, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal?
Help with a Pharmacy 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 pharmacist facing a Pharmacy Council complaint, notification or allegation, a Professional Conduct Committee investigation or a competence review about professional behaviour or conduct — an allegation of unprofessional behaviour or conduct
- Authorities covered
- The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand, its Competence and Fitness to Practise Committee, its Professional Conduct Committees and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
- Length
- 10 sections, 62 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 unprofessional behaviour or conduct
The Council’s letter says your manner at the counter, a claim, the dispensary you run or something you said in public fell short of the Code of Ethics. This course is how you account for it — and show you have remediated.
Dealing with a Pharmacy Council complaint or notification
A patient, a prescriber, your employer, the funder or Medicines Control has raised a concern and the Registrar has asked for your response. Most professionalism matters end with the Registrar — often with an educational letter — on the strength of it.
Before the Competence and Fitness to Practise Committee
The Committee may order an independent review against the Competence Standards and set a programme, conditions and monitoring. A dated certificate and a reflective account written against the Code are evidence the Committee or your recertification portfolio can record.
Under investigation by a Professional Conduct Committee
Two pharmacists and a lay member have the file and want your response and usually a meeting. They read for the difference between an account and a defence — and for dated, targeted remediation alongside your reflection.
Facing a misconduct charge or hearing before the Tribunal
A charge of professional misconduct has been laid, or a penalty is being decided. Remediation completed before the hearing — dated, documented — is weighed every time.
Expecting a complaint to reach the Council
A complaint to the pharmacy, the Health and Disability Commissioner, a prescriber or the funder can become a Pharmacy Council matter. Remediation done now is documented before it does.
The concerns this course speaks to
Communication and counselling at the counter
An elderly patient’s concern brushed off, counselling skipped on a new inhaler, a question answered within earshot of the queue, a prescriber spoken about in front of the patient. The Code’s first principle is the patient’s health and wellbeing, and counselling is how it is honoured at the counter.
Probity and an allegation of dishonesty
A claim to the funder for prescriptions not dispensed, a controlled-drug register that does not reconcile, a dose change not recorded on a rest-home chart, a false declaration or a falsified practising certificate, stock taken from an employer. The Council treats dishonesty as misconduct whatever the clinical outcome.
Dispensing errors and unsafe practice under pressure
The wrong drug, strength or directions; a safety alert overridden; a second check skipped by a sole rural pharmacist working through the day. The Code requires competent and safe care, and the Council reads an account of a lapse under pressure for whether you can separate the workload from your own decisions.
Supervision, conditions and running the dispensary
Unqualified staff left to dispense unsupervised, an audit not cooperated with, a condition on your practice not kept. These have ended a registration at the Tribunal; the course treats the pharmacist’s responsibility for the dispensary they run as professional conduct.
Professional and ethical boundaries
A regular patient who became a friend through messages, personal matters discussed across the counter, a relationship with a customer, a staff member treated as something other than a colleague. The Code places the responsibility for the boundary with the pharmacist.
Confidentiality, the shop floor and the screen
A patient’s antidepressant discussed with a mutual friend, a prescription counselled at the front counter, a video posted from the dispensary, a post about a customer someone could identify. The Code’s principle of confidentiality applies online without change.
Public statements, advertising and commercial pressure
Misleading health claims made publicly or online, prescription medicines advertised with a discount, a brand pushed for a supplier incentive, an owner’s targets pressed on an employee. The Code expects commercial interests to give way to the patient’s, and misleading public statements have ended a registration at the Tribunal.
Cultural safety, competence and any other concern
Whānau declined a place in counselling, rongoā dismissed, a service offered without the training, a recertification portfolio that does not reflect practice. Any allegation of unprofessional behaviour or conduct is measured against a principle of the Code — the course shows you how to find it and answer it.
Facing a Pharmacy Council investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200What the course covers
Ten sections and 62 lessons, with a reflective quiz closing each of the first nine and a post-course assessment at the end.
Introduction — Why Professionalism Matters in New Zealand Pharmacy Practice
Six lessons
Core Attributes of Professionalism
Nine lessons
Regulator Perspectives — Pharmacy Council of New Zealand Standards
Seven lessons
Common Lapses in Professionalism and Their Consequences
Seven lessons
Reflection, Insight, and Remediation in Professionalism Cases
Five lessons
Weak vs Strong Demonstrations of Professionalism
Seven lessons
Case Studies — Professionalism Across Pharmacy Practice Contexts
Eight lessons
Professionalism in Communication, Documentation, and Digital Practice
Four lessons
Embedding Professionalism into Identity, Cultural Safety, and Resilience
Seven lessons
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Key takeaways and the post-course assessment
Show every lesson title
- Section 01 · Introduction — Why Professionalism Matters in New Zealand Pharmacy Practice
- What Professionalism Means in Pharmacy Practice; Why Professionalism Matters for Patients and Whānau; Why Professionalism Matters for the Profession and Regulators; Professionalism as Part of Pharmacist Identity; Consequences of Professional Lapses; Professionalism in Modern New Zealand Pharmacy Practice.
- Section 02 · Core Attributes of Professionalism
- Honesty and Integrity; Accountability; Respect and Dignity; Clinical and Professional Competence; Professional Boundaries; Communication and Collaboration; Cultural Safety and Te Tiriti Partnership; Reflection and Insight; Resilience and Professional Identity.
- Section 03 · Regulator Perspectives — Pharmacy Council of New Zealand Standards
- The Role of the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand; The Code of Ethics (2018); Competence Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacists (2024); Professional Misconduct and Fitness to Practise; Cultural Safety and Te Tiriti o Waitangi; Reflection, Insight, and Remediation; Shared Professional Themes Across PCNZ Guidance.
- Section 04 · Common Lapses in Professionalism and Their Consequences
- Dishonesty and Lack of Integrity; Poor Communication and Disrespect; Boundary Violations; Failure to Maintain Competence; Conflicts of Interest; Confidentiality and Digital Misconduct; Consequences of Professional Lapses.
- Section 05 · Reflection, Insight, and Remediation in Professionalism Cases
- Reflection — Honest Self-Examination; Insight — Recognising Seriousness and Impact; Remediation — Taking Corrective Action; Weak vs Strong Responses in Council Proceedings; Integration of Reflection, Insight, and Remediation.
- Section 06 · Weak vs Strong Demonstrations of Professionalism
- Dispensing Error; Boundary Concern; Informed Counselling Failure; Conflict of Interest; Digital Professionalism Breach; Unethical Advertising; Patterns in Weak and Strong Responses.
- Section 07 · Case Studies — Professionalism Across Pharmacy Practice Contexts
- Community Pharmacy — Patient Confidentiality; Hospital Pharmacy — Cultural Safety; Aged Care — Documentation and Accountability; Digital Pharmacy — Social-Media Conduct; Clinical Pharmacy — Conflict of Interest; Rural Pharmacy — Workload and Resilience; Public Health — Communication and Collaboration; Lessons Across All Contexts.
- Section 08 · Professionalism in Communication, Documentation, and Digital Practice
- Professional Communication; Professional Documentation; Digital Professionalism; Integration Across Communication, Documentation, and Digital Practice.
- Section 09 · Embedding Professionalism into Identity, Cultural Safety, and Resilience
- Professionalism as Identity; Daily Habits that Reinforce Professionalism; Cultural Safety and Te Tiriti Partnership; Reflection and Accountability as Ongoing Practice; Building Resilience to Sustain Professionalism; Mentorship and Role Modelling; Sustaining Professionalism Across a Career.
- Section 10 · Conclusion and Key Takeaways
- Conclusion; Key Takeaways.
How to respond to a Pharmacy Council notification, complaint or allegation
The Registrar, the Competence and Fitness to Practise Committee, a Professional Conduct Committee and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal all read the same response. It has to do four things, and the course teaches each one.
The Council asks one question of every response: is a pattern emerging?
- The whole storyEvents in order, in plain words, with the register, the claim or the counselling record cited rather than described — including anything earlier on the file.Weak and strong responses to the same events show the account that survives the pattern question.
- Which principleThe principle of the Code the conduct fell short of — honesty and integrity for a claim, confidentiality for the shop floor, the patient’s wellbeing for counselling not given — named by you first.The course takes the Code’s seven principles as behaviour, so you can name the one that applies.
- The effectWhat the conduct meant for the patient, in their terms rather than the pharmacy’s.Reflection and insight are defined and evidenced in a section of their own.
- What is different, and who can confirm itDates and a second signature: an audit repeated after an interval, a mentor’s report, feedback sought on purpose, restitution where money is involved.This course is the dated item you attach — and it tells you how to build the rest.
Do not shift it to the prescriber or the owner — and do not send the first draft.
Take advice from your indemnity insurer, your union or a lawyer before you respond to anyone.
Facing a Pharmacy Council investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200How this course helps with a Pharmacy Council investigation
Twelve answers to six events, from New Zealand pharmacies
A mislabelled antibiotic taken for three days. A friendship with a patient built by message. An inhaler handed over without the technique. A brand pushed for an incentive. A video from the dispensary. A discount advertised on prescription medicines. The course gives each event the response that closed the matter and the one that sent it on, with case studies from community, hospital, aged-care, digital, clinical, rural and public health pharmacy — and the strong response always gets to the principle first, accepts the effect without a qualifying clause, and points to something dated.
What the Council accepts as evidence of change
This course is one dated item. The rest: a mentor’s or peer’s written reports; an audit of dispensing records, claims or the controlled-drug register repeated after an interval; patient feedback gathered on purpose; Māori-led cultural safety education where it is engaged; reflection that cites the Code; and, where money is involved, restitution. Discounted: hours on another subject, an apology for the complaint, and a response that argues the dispensary. For the stages from the first letter to the Tribunal, see the Council investigation process, explained.
Read the primary sources
- Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 — the Act
- Code of Ethics 2018 — The code
- Competence Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacists — Standards
- The Council’s statements — Statements
- Council competence and conduct committees — Fitness to practise
- Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal — decisions
Who wrote it
In short
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Pharmacists is a two-hour, self-paced remediation course for pharmacists registered with the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand facing a notification, investigation, complaint or allegation, written to the Council’s Code of Ethics 2018 and Competence Standards. It sets out what the Council means by professionalism — seven principles under care, integrity and competence — the lapses complaints about pharmacists often describe — communication at the counter, honesty in claims, records and the register, boundaries, commercial pressure and conflicts of interest, unsafe practice under pressure, confidentiality on the shop floor and online, competence, cultural safety — and what a credible response to a complaint, a competence review, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Tribunal contains. Ten sections, the first nine closing with a reflective quiz, a post-course assessment, and a dated certificate from Healthcare Ethics Courses for your recertification. It is remediation and dated evidence of it; it decides no matter, and it is not a substitute for advice from your indemnity insurer, your professional body or a lawyer.
What the Pharmacy Council means by professionalism
The Code of Ethics 2018 describes professionalism as seven principles under three headings — care, integrity and competence — and says it is the framework against which breaches of professional conduct are judged: the patient first; honesty and integrity; competent and safe care; confidentiality; equity and cultural safety; accountability; maintained competence. A complaint names one of them, and the course takes each in turn: what the Council expects, what complaints describe, and how it weighs the gap — including whether a pattern is emerging.
Three features of pharmacy run through it. The counter: a pharmacist’s conduct is more visible to the public than any other practitioner’s, and now extends to what they say online. The register and the claim: records audited by the funder and by Medsafe, where an entry that does not match is a probity matter first. The interface with prescribers: the Code expects a pharmacist to query and to raise concerns.
What these words mean
The three terms that decide where a matter goes, and the other words the course uses.
- Professional Conduct Committee
- Two pharmacists and a lay member, with a legal adviser and where needed an investigator, appointed where a concern is about conduct or a conviction. It investigates independently, reads your response, usually meets you, and recommends: no further action, counselling, a competence or fitness review, or a charge before the Tribunal.
- 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.
- 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 Code, the Competence Standards, insight, remediation and the other terms the course uses
- Code of Ethics 2018
- The Pharmacy Council’s statement of the standards of ethical conduct expected of every pharmacist: seven principles under care, integrity and competence, each with the obligations that meet it. The document a complaint is measured against, and the one a response should cite by principle.
- Competence Standards
- The Competence Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacists: what a competent pharmacist knows and does, the measure a competence review applies, and the frame of the MyRecert portfolio. Professional behaviour and cultural safety are standards in their own right.
- Complaint or notification
- The Council’s own words for a concern about a pharmacist reaching it — from a patient, a colleague, an employer, a prescriber, the funder or the courts. Neither is a finding; the Registrar considers it first and asks for your response.
- Competence and Fitness to Practise Committee
- The Council committee that handles the competence and health routes: it may order an independent competence review, set a competence programme, impose conditions and monitoring, or consider an independent medical assessment. It is not a disciplinary process.
- Professional boundary
- The line between the pharmacist’s relationship with a patient and any other, tested by regular contact across a counter over years. The responsibility for keeping it sits with the pharmacist whoever initiated the drift.
- Insight
- Acceptance of the seriousness of a lapse and its effect on the patient, the team and public trust, without minimising it or shifting responsibility to the workload, the owner or the prescriber. The Council treats limited insight as the strongest predictor of recurrence.
- Remediation
- Corrective action targeted to the lapse and verifiable by someone else: CPD on the principle concerned, mentoring or peer review with reports, an audit of dispensing, claims or the register repeated over time, feedback gathered on purpose. Recertification hours on an unrelated subject count for little on their own.
The provisions a professionalism concern about a pharmacist engages
Professionalism is conduct, and the Pharmacy Council’s standards say what professional conduct is for the profession. These are the standard itself and the provisions of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 a professionalism notification about a pharmacist runs under.
Pharmacy Council — Code of Ethics 2018
Seven principles under care, integrity and competence, with the Competence Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacists and the Council’s statements. Every professionalism complaint about a pharmacist names a part of it. Read it.
For this course: The course takes the Code of Ethics 2018 as behaviour at the counter and in the dispensary, so that a response names the principle the conduct fell short of.
Section 71 — referral to a Professional Conduct Committee
A conduct concern — behaviour towards patients or colleagues, honesty, a claim, the dispensary you run — is referred to a Professional Conduct Committee of two pharmacists and a lay member, which investigates independently, asks for your response and usually meets you. Read it.
For this course: A professionalism concern is a conduct concern and is referred here; the course explains what the Committee will ask for.
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 — and for a conviction or a breached condition. Discredit is judged by what the public and the profession would make of the conduct. Read it.
For this course: Conduct that brings discredit to the profession is a ground of discipline, and the course explains how it has been applied to pharmacists.
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. Insight, restitution and remediation are weighed every time. Read it.
For this course: The Tribunal’s penalties in pharmacy conduct cases weigh pattern and insight; the course teaches the evidence for the second.
Also engaged: Section 118 — the Council sets the Code a complaint is measured against · Section 34 — practitioners and employers must notify a risk of harm, which is why a complaint may come from within the pharmacy · Section 80 — what a Professional Conduct Committee may recommend, from counselling to a charge · Section 36 — a competence review where professionalism and competence overlap.
What happens after a complaint reaches the Pharmacy Council
Who reads a complaint about a pharmacist, and in what order. Every reader asks the same thing: do you understand what happened and why it mattered to the patient, have you said so in your own words, and have you done something someone else can confirm.
The Registrar sorts the complaint
Every complaint goes to the Registrar first — from a patient, a prescriber, an employer, the funder or the courts. The Registrar sorts it into competence, health or conduct, asks whether a pattern is emerging, and writes to you. Many matters end here, often with an educational letter, on the strength of the response.
The Competence and Fitness to Practise Committee, for competence
Where practice may be below the required standard, the Committee may order an independent review against the Competence Standards and set a competence programme, conditions and monitoring. It is not a disciplinary process, and you can ask to be heard.
The same Committee, for health
Where a condition may affect your practice, the Committee considers an independent medical assessment under the Act’s fitness to practise provisions. What you disclose is treated in strict confidence, and outcomes run from no further action to conditions and monitoring.
A Professional Conduct Committee, for conduct
Dishonesty in a claim, the register or a declaration, theft, a boundary, misleading public statements, staff left unsupervised, a breached condition: two pharmacists and a lay member investigate, read your response, usually meet you, and may refer the matter to the Police or lay a charge. Insight decides more than the event does.
The Tribunal, if a charge is laid
A legally qualified chair, three pharmacists and a layperson hear the charge, usually in public. Orders run from censure, fines and conditions to suspension and cancellation, sometimes with retraining required; insight and remediation are weighed in every decision.
Interim suspension or conditions
Where patients are at serious risk the Council may suspend your practising certificate or impose interim conditions at any stage, and the Tribunal may once a charge is laid. An interim order is a precaution, not a finding, and is reviewed.
Facing a Pharmacy Council investigation, complaint or allegation? This course helps you remediate — and demonstrate it.
Buy this course — NZ$200Not a pharmacist? 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 to see in my written response?
The events in order and plainly; the principle of the Code you fell short of, named by you first; the effect on the patient in their terms; what you have done since, with dates; and what would be different next time.
Should I take advice before I respond to the Council?
Yes — before anything is written to the Council, a Committee, the Tribunal or your employer. Your indemnity insurer, your professional body or a lawyer should read a response before it is sent. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no course determines the outcome of a matter.
Does completing this course count as remediation?
It is one dated item. Remediation the Council recognises is targeted to the lapse and checkable by someone else — CPD on the principle, a mentor’s or peer’s reports, an audit of dispensing, claims or the register repeated after an interval, feedback gathered on purpose, and reflection that cites the Code. No provider is accredited by the Council and no course decides a matter; check the wording of any direction with your indemnity insurer, professional body or lawyer.
The complaint is about how I spoke to a patient at the counter. Is that really a Council matter?
Yes. Making the patient’s health and wellbeing your first concern is the Code’s first principle, and counselling is how it is honoured at the counter. A single exchange usually ends with your response and perhaps an educational letter; a pattern, or an exchange the patient found humiliating in front of a queue, can go to a Professional Conduct Committee.
The concern is about a claim to the funder. Is that professionalism or fraud?
To the Council it is integrity, and it treats a claim for prescriptions not dispensed as misconduct whatever the explanation; where the conduct may be criminal a Professional Conduct Committee may also refer it to the Police.
I recommended a brand my supplier gives us an incentive on. Is that a conduct matter?
Yes. The Code requires commercial interests to be declared and to give way to the patient’s, and an undeclared incentive is treated as a question of integrity. The same applies to prescription medicines advertised with a discount and to misleading health claims made in public.
A regular patient has become a friend and messages me. Is that a boundary problem?
It can be, and the Code places the responsibility with you. The Council does not expect pharmacists to be cold; it expects them to notice when the relationship has stopped being professional and to manage it. The course covers recognising drift, ending it kindly and recording it.
Is cultural safety a conduct matter for pharmacists?
Yes. Promoting equity and cultural safety is a principle of the Code and a Competence Standard. A complaint about whānau turned away from counselling or rongoā dismissed is a professionalism complaint, with its own section and remediation pathway in the course.
I am an intern pharmacist or a technician. Is this course for me?
An intern pharmacist is registered with the Council and the Code applies in full. A pharmacy technician is not registered under the Act, but the course’s standards are the ones a technician’s supervising pharmacist answers for — including the duty to supervise.
How is this course different from the Ethics course for pharmacists?
The Ethics course is about the reasoning behind a decision — supply or refusal, disclosure of an error, confidentiality against safety, conscience. This course is about conduct — the behaviours the Code requires and the lapses that produce complaints.
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 recertification, 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.
Ethics and Ethical Standards for Pharmacists
A Pharmacy Council concern about a judgement: a supply made or refused, consent, counselling, honesty or commercial pressure. Code of Ethics 2018. 2 hrs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
