Probity for Healthcare Professionals

About this course

This course offers practical guidance on probity: the honesty, integrity and ethical conduct expected of healthcare professionals across clinical, academic and financial practice. It is written for doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and other health professionals, and is especially useful for anyone facing a complaint, investigation or fitness to practise process with a regulator such as the GMC, GDC, NMC, GPhC, HCPC, GOC, GOsC or GCC.

Probity cases are among the most serious that regulators consider, because dishonesty goes to the heart of whether a professional can be trusted. Many probity concerns arise not in the consulting room but in timesheets, expense claims, CVs, CPD records, research, declarations to employers and responses to investigations. This course explains how probity applies in each of these areas, how regulators and courts decide whether conduct was dishonest, and how professionals can reflect, remediate and restore trust.

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

• Understand what probity means and why it is essential to healthcare practice.
• See how probity applies across clinical care, documentation, communication, academic work and financial conduct.
• Identify common breaches of probity and grasp their ethical and professional consequences.
• Reflect meaningfully on past actions, particularly when involved in a complaint or investigation.
• Use insight and learning to show genuine personal growth and ethical awareness.
• Build a remediation plan that supports the restoration of trust and meets regulatory expectations.
• Commit to honest, transparent behaviour across every part of professional life.

Who this course is for

Doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals and other UK registrants, especially those facing a complaint, investigation or fitness to practise process involving honesty.

Social workers: this cross-profession course covers principles that apply across health and social care; most worked examples come from healthcare settings.

Course content

8 sections · 2 CPD hours · 15 MCQs

Course facts

CPD value

Approximately 2 CPD hours (estimated learning time, including reflection and assessment)

Format

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

Standards covered

GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC, HCPC, GOC, GOsC and GCC standards on honesty and integrity; the legal test for dishonesty; fraud and bribery law; duty of candour; conflicts of interest; research integrity

Assessment

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

Questions about this course