Course catalogue
Forty-nine self-paced CPD courses for New Zealand practitioners, in six groups that run from ethics and conduct to patient safety, medicines and remediation. Each is mapped to New Zealand law and your responsible authority's standards; filter by profession or topic group below.
43 courses · Pharmacists (Pharmacy Council)
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and Regulations in daily practice: prescriber limits, compliant prescriptions, custody, registers, diversion and equitable care.
Why capable practitioners make errors and what to do about it: cognition, workload, fatigue, situational awareness, design, teamwork and speaking up.
Recognise, rate and report harm and near misses under the 2023 national adverse events policy, then turn your report into learning.
Standard and transmission-based precautions, outbreaks, notifiable diseases, blood-borne viruses and antimicrobial stewardship for every NZ care setting.
Safer prescribing, charting, reconciliation, dispensing, administration and monitoring, plus how to respond when a medication error happens.
Prescribing authority, legally complete prescriptions, standing orders, controlled drugs, unapproved medicines and prescribing audit for every prescriber.
The Model for Improvement, PDSA cycles, measures and run charts, plus clinical audit design that meets recertification needs and closes equity gaps.
Run or contribute to a learning review: terms of reference, review conversations, network of influences maps, sensemaking and actions that change systems.
Identify, assess and control clinical risk under the Code of Rights, Ngā Paerewa, the HQSC adverse events policy and New Zealand workplace health and safety law.
Recognise and respond to abuse, neglect and family violence affecting tamariki, rangatahi and adults at risk, with reports, information sharing and records.
Recognise and escalate sepsis early with NZEWS, MEWS, PEWS, Kōrero mai and the Raise the Flag pathways, in hospital, primary care and the community.
Want the full picture for Pharmacists (Pharmacy Council)? Read the CPD and renewal guide
Every course is online and self-paced, with knowledge checks, a 20-question final assessment (80%, 16 of 20), a certificate and a structured reflective account. Reflective Practice is the only 2-hour course (NZ$109); the other 48 carry 3 hours (estimated) each (NZ$139). The last column names the main law or code behind each course, and the course page lists every standard it covers. Eight courses in the profession-specific group are limited to particular professions; everything else is open to every profession regulated under the HPCA Act.
| Course | Learning time | Price | New Zealand anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethics for New Zealand Health Practitioners | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights; HPCA Act ss 100–101; End of Life Choice Act 2019 |
| Professionalism in Practice for Health Practitioners | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act 2003; MCNZ Good medical practice; NCNZ Code of Conduct |
| Probity and Honesty in Practice | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act ss 100–101; MCNZ Medical certification; ACC provider expectations |
| Professional Boundaries with Patients, Whānau and Colleagues | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights; MCNZ Sexual boundaries (2018); NCNZ Professional Boundaries (2012) |
| Financial Integrity in Practice | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act ss 100–101; ACC contracts; Pharmaceutical Schedule; Crimes Act 1961 |
| Social Media and Online Professionalism | 3 | NZ$139 | MCNZ Internet and electronic communication (2021); HIPC 2020; Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 |
| Chaperones and Intimate Examinations | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights; MCNZ When another person is present (2022) |
| Cultural Safety and Health Equity | 3 | NZ$139 | Te Tiriti o Waitangi; Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Act 2022; Human Rights Act 1993 |
| Course | Learning time | Price | New Zealand anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethics for Doctors | 3 | NZ$139 | MCNZ Good medical practice (2021) and Council statements; NZMA Code of Ethics |
| Ethics for Nurses and Midwives | 3 | NZ$139 | NCNZ Code of Conduct; Midwifery Council Code of Conduct; NZNO and NZCOM codes |
| Ethics for Pharmacists | 3 | NZ$139 | Pharmacy Council Code of Ethics 2018 and statements; Medicines Act 1981 |
| Ethics for Dental Professionals | 3 | NZ$139 | Dental Council Standards Framework and practice standards |
| Professional Standards for Doctors | 3 | NZ$139 | MCNZ Good medical practice and statements; Inpractice and vocational recertification |
| Professional Standards for Nurses and Midwives | 3 | NZ$139 | NCNZ scopes and standards of competence (2025); midwifery scope and Code of Conduct |
| Professional Standards for Pharmacists | 3 | NZ$139 | Pharmacy Council Competence Standards (2023); pharmacist scopes of practice |
| Professional Standards for Dental Professionals | 3 | NZ$139 | Dental Council Standards Framework; IPC, medical emergencies and sedation standards |
| Working Within Your Scope of Practice | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act scopes of practice; Restricted Activities Order 2005 |
| Course | Learning time | Price | New Zealand anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Informed Consent and Communication | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights 5–7; MCNZ Informed consent (2021); Care of Children Act 2004 |
| Health Information Privacy and Confidentiality | 3 | NZ$139 | Privacy Act 2020; HIPC 2020, including rule 3A |
| Open Disclosure After Harm: Honest Communication When Care Goes Wrong | 3 | NZ$139 | Right 6; HDC open disclosure guidance (2019); MCNZ Disclosure of harm (2024) |
| Effective Communication with Patients and Whānau | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights 5 and 6; NZ Sign Language Act 2006; Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016 |
| Decision-Making Capacity and the PPPR Act | 3 | NZ$139 | Right 7(4); PPPR Act 1988; Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 |
| Teamwork and Collaboration | 3 | NZ$139 | Right 4(5); MCNZ Good medical practice; Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 |
| Clinical Handover and Patient Safety | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights 4–6; Te Tāhū Hauora deterioration programme; Referral Guidelines |
| Course | Learning time | Price | New Zealand anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adverse Event Reporting and Learning | 3 | NZ$139 | National adverse events policy 2023; Severity Assessment Code; CARM reporting |
| Human Factors and Patient Safety | 3 | NZ$139 | National adverse events policy 2023; HQSC learning review guide; HSWA 2015 |
| Systems Analysis After Adverse Events | 3 | NZ$139 | National adverse events policy 2023; learning review guide; London Protocol |
| Clinical Risk Management | 3 | NZ$139 | Ngā Paerewa NZS 8134:2021; HSWA 2015; National adverse events policy 2023 |
| Medication Safety and Error Prevention | 3 | NZ$139 | Medicines Act 1981; HQSC Medication Charting and Medicine Reconciliation Standards |
| Controlled Drugs: Safe Prescribing and Supply | 3 | NZ$139 | Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and Regulations 1977; OST guidelines 2025 |
| Prescribing Standards for Health Practitioners | 3 | NZ$139 | Medicines Act 1981; Medicines Regulations 1984; MCNZ good prescribing practice (2024) |
| Infection Prevention and Control | 3 | NZ$139 | Ngā Paerewa section 5; Health Act 1956; Dental Council IPC standard |
| Sepsis and the Deteriorating Patient | 3 | NZ$139 | Te Tāhū Hauora deterioration programme (NZEWS); Raise the Flag sepsis pathways |
| Quality Improvement and Clinical Audit | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act s 41; Ngā Paerewa; NEAC National Ethical Standards (2019) |
| Safeguarding Children and Adults at Risk | 3 | NZ$139 | Oranga Tamariki Act 1989; Children's Act 2014; Family Violence Act 2018 |
| Course | Learning time | Price | New Zealand anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical Documentation and Record Keeping | 3 | NZ$139 | Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996; MCNZ Patient records (2020) |
| Reflective Practice for Health Practitioners | 2 | NZ$109 | Reflection in recertification programmes; HPCA Act s 44(4) |
| Maintaining Clinical Competence | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act ss 36–44; recertification programmes under s 41 |
| Building a Recertification Portfolio | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act s 41; Inpractice, MyRecert and NCNZ audit requirements |
| Returning to Practice | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act s 27; MCNZ 3-year policy; Pharmacy Council Return to Practice Policy |
| Clinical Supervision and Professional Development Planning | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act s 5; Psychologists Board supervision guideline; Dental Council peer and PDP |
| Work-Based Learning and Professional Competence | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act ss 36–44; MCNZ Inpractice; NCNZ continuing competence |
| Course | Learning time | Price | New Zealand anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Responding to a Complaint | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights Right 10; HDC Act 1994; PCC process under the HPCA Act |
| Insight: Understanding, Developing and Demonstrating It | 3 | NZ$139 | Roberts v PCC [2012] NZHC 3354 penalty principles |
| Remediation After a Concern | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act competence and recertification programmes (ss 38–41); conditions on scope |
| Preventing Recurrence After an Error or Misconduct | 3 | NZ$139 | HPCA Act ss 36–51 and 100–101; National adverse events policy 2023 |
| Rebuilding Trust After a Complaint | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights; HDC Act 1994; HPCA Act ss 69 and 100–101 |
| Raising Concerns and Protected Disclosures | 3 | NZ$139 | Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022; HPCA Act ss 34–35 |
| How to Avoid a Complaint: Lessons from HDC Complaint Themes | 3 | NZ$139 | Code of Rights; HDC annual reports and complaint analyses |
Start with the gaps in your professional development plan. Building a Recertification Portfolio, Clinical Supervision and Professional Development Planning and Work-Based Learning help with the shape of a programme, while topic courses such as consent, privacy, record keeping, medication safety or cultural safety fill specific goals. Reflective Practice helps with the written reflections many programmes ask for.
Facing an HDC complaint or a Professional Conduct Committee? Responding to a Complaint, Insight and Remediation After a Concern work as a set with the course that matches the issue. Preventing Recurrence After an Error or Misconduct and Rebuilding Trust After a Complaint suit the later stages, when you need to show the change has held. Read our fitness to practise guide for how the process runs.
Fitness To Practice has no approval from the HPDT or from any of the 18 responsible authorities. Where education is part of an order or condition, the body that set it decides what counts, so get its answer (or your supervisor's or lawyer's) before buying anything here.
Buying for a team or practice? Ask us about group enrolment.
Start with the biggest gap in your professional development plan. If nothing stands out, Informed Consent and Communication or Clinical Documentation and Record Keeping suit most practitioners, because consent and records come up in many HDC complaints. After a concern, choose the course matching the issue raised.
It is shorter: 2 hours (estimated) at NZ$109, while the other 48 courses are 3 hours (estimated) at NZ$139. The format is the same, with knowledge checks, a 20-question final assessment at 80% and a certificate, and it pairs well with any topic course.
Yes, where relevant. Cultural safety features in Medical Council standards, the Nursing Council pou (including kawa whakaruruhau) and Pharmacy Council recertification. Cultural Safety and Health Equity treats Te Tiriti and equity as its main subject, and Ethics and Professional Boundaries cover whānau, tikanga and culturally safe practice, with New Zealand scenarios you can draw on in your reflections.
Forty-one of the 49. Only the eight profession-specific ethics and standards courses, written for doctors, nurses and midwives, oral health practitioners and pharmacists, sit outside allied practice. Allied practitioners work under the same Code of Rights, privacy rules and HPCA Act processes, and courses such as Working Within Your Scope of Practice name allied boards and codes where relevant, so you can record them against your own programme.
Yes. Many practitioners combine Responding to a Complaint, Insight and Remediation After a Concern with the matching topic course, then add Preventing Recurrence once the immediate response is done. This cannot replace legal advice or education ordered by a regulator, and no course guarantees an outcome. Check the terms of any order with your regulator, supervisor or lawyer first.
Yes: NZ$139 for each 3-hour course and NZ$109 for the 2-hour Reflective Practice course. The checkout shows the final amount before you pay. Practices and employers wanting several places can ask about group enrolment through our contact page, and each learner gets their own certificate.
It depends on your goal. The four profession-specific ethics courses (doctors, nurses and midwives, oral health practitioners, pharmacists) go deep into your own council's code and statements, such as Good medical practice or the Pharmacy Council Code of Ethics 2018. Ethics for New Zealand Health Practitioners covers the shared framework of the Code of Rights and the HPCA Act, with examples across professions. Many practitioners take one this year and the other later.
Checked October 2026. Rules and processes change, so confirm the current position with the official source. This page is general information, not legal advice.
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.
Tell us your profession and what you need the learning for, and we will point you to the most relevant course.
