Ethics and Ethical Standards for Doctors

About this course

Doctors face ethical decisions daily: how much to tell a patient about risk, what to do when a patient lacks capacity, whether to share information without consent, how to approach decisions at the end of life, and how to handle personal beliefs, conflicts of interest and mistakes. The GMC's Good medical practice (2024) and its supporting ethical guidance provide the framework for these decisions.

This course applies the core ethical principles to medical practice, explains the structure of Good medical practice and the GMC's ethical guidance, covers consent and capacity, end of life care, confidentiality, integrity, candour, personal beliefs and boundaries, and explains how the GMC responds to breaches and how doctors can remediate. It uses clinical scenarios typical of UK practice.

CPD Value and How to Record It:

This course is designed to provide approximately 2 hours of learning, including reading, the reflection points, the reflective account and the assessment. In the UK, CPD is generally recorded as the time actually spent learning, so you should record the time you genuinely spend, which may be more or less than the estimate.

How the course fits your revalidation or CPD requirements depends on your regulator. For example, the NMC asks nurses, midwives and nursing associates to record 35 hours of CPD over three years, of which at least 20 must be participatory; self-directed online learning such as this course usually counts as individual learning unless you complete it with others. The GMC expects doctors to reflect on CPD for appraisal and revalidation rather than setting a fixed number of hours. The HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC and GCC each set their own CPD requirements, so check the current rules that apply to you. Always keep your certificate together with your written reflection.

What you will learn

• Explain why ethics is central to medical practice and to the GMC's role.
• Apply autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice to clinical decisions.
• Describe the four domains of Good medical practice (2024) and key GMC guidance.
• Apply the law and GMC guidance on consent, capacity and end of life care.
• Act with honesty, apply the duty of candour and keep accurate records.
• Manage personal beliefs, conflicts of interest and boundaries.
• Respond to ethical breaches with reflection and remediation.

Who this course is for

Doctors registered with the GMC in all specialties and grades, including those responding to a concern.

Course content

10 sections · 2 CPD hours · 15 MCQs

Course facts

CPD value

Approximately 2 CPD hours (estimated learning time, including reflection and assessment); suitable as supporting information for appraisal and revalidation

Format

Self-paced reading with clinical ethics cases, reflection points and a written reflective account

Standards covered

GMC Good medical practice (2024) and ethical guidance, including decision making and consent, confidentiality, end of life care, personal beliefs, boundaries and candour; Mental Capacity Act 2005; key case law

Assessment

15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions; pass mark 12 out of 15 (80%)

Questions about this course