Patient safety and medicines
Identifying, assessing and controlling clinical risk under the Code of Rights, Ngā Paerewa, the HQSC adverse events policy and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
Registered health practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand: doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and oral health practitioners, pharmacists, paramedics and allied health professionals, including those in quality, risk and leadership roles.
Structured learning and a written reflection to show insight after a complaint, an investigation or a responsible authority inquiry.
Focused learning on a core standard of practice, with a certificate and reflection for your portfolio.
This course teaches the practical discipline of clinical risk management as it works in Aotearoa New Zealand: finding hazards before they harm anyone, judging how much they matter, choosing controls that work for real people under pressure, and learning from incidents so that fixes last. It covers Right 4 of the Code of Rights, the HPCA Act and professional standards, Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard NZS 8134:2021, the Health Quality & Safety Commission's national adverse events policy 2023 (including SAC ratings, the Always Report and Review list and national reporting timeframes), national tools such as the New Zealand Early Warning Score and the Surgical Safety Checklist, and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
It is written for registered health practitioners in every setting: doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and oral health practitioners, pharmacists, paramedics and allied health professionals, in hospitals, general practice, community and aged residential care, pharmacies and private practice. It suits practitioners who want to strengthen everyday safety practice, those taking on quality, risk or leadership roles, and those who need to show insight and change after an incident.
New Zealand holds organisations and individuals to account for avoidable harm through HDC, responsible authorities, certification audits and, for worker safety, WorkSafe. Each asks a different question about the same event. Practitioners who manage risk well, escalate what they cannot control, report honestly and document their reasoning protect patients and whānau and are able to show that they acted reasonably. Each section uses New Zealand case examples across the professions and ends with a knowledge check.
10 sections · 24 lessons · 3 hours (estimated) · 20-question final assessment
Final assessment
20scenario-based questions
Certificate of completion
A certificate of completion for your learning portfolio.
The course includes a structured reflective account template: guided prompts to record what you learned, how you will apply it and how the change will show in your practice. It gives you written evidence of insight after a concern, and a ready record for your CPD portfolio.
Write it in your own words and leave out anything that could identify a patient, a colleague or a case. If you have an open complaint or case, talk to your adviser before reflecting on it in writing.
Incident reporting is reactive: it starts after an event. Risk management is mainly proactive: finding high-risk processes before harm, rating risks by likelihood and consequence, and choosing controls. The course covers both and explains how a prospective risk rating differs from the Severity Assessment Code.
Yes. It applies the HSWA 2015 duties of the PCBU, officers and workers, overlapping duties and notifiable events to clinical workplaces, including where patient safety and worker safety meet, such as violence, fatigue and hazardous substances. Officers' due diligence duties are also explained.
The course uses the hierarchy of controls to show why design changes and forcing functions beat warnings and training, and how checklists, standardisation, supervision and delegation can be genuine safeguards rather than paperwork. It ends with writing strong, owned and measurable recommendations.
From internal sources such as incidents, audits and complaints, and external ones such as HDC opinions and national alerts. The course treats whānau concern as risk information and uses national tools such as NZEWS and the Surgical Safety Checklist as worked examples.
Councils and boards do not approve individual outside courses, so we make no credit claim; you may record it where it fits your PDP and scope. About 3 hours (estimated) online for NZ$139; 16 of 20 final questions answered correctly earns the certificate, plus a reflection on risks in your own setting.
Every legal and regulatory point comes from primary sources: the HPCA Act 2003, the responsible authorities' standards and the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights. Anything we cannot confirm is left out.
Lessons, scenarios and assessment questions are written by us for each edition separately, then checked for accuracy, teaching quality and fair assessment before publication.
When a code, standard or law changes, the affected courses are reviewed and updated. Reported errors in legal or regulatory facts are corrected first.
Honest communication when care goes wrong: HDC open disclosure guidance, the HQSC adverse events policy, ACC treatment injury and culturally safe apology.
Why capable practitioners make errors and what to do about it: cognition, workload, fatigue, situational awareness, design, teamwork and speaking up.
Accurate, honest and defensible notes: what a good entry contains, late entries and corrections, AI scribes, access requests and the 10-year retention rule.
