U.S. healthcare ethics and professionalism courses, written for licensees

Licensing in the United States is organized by profession and by state, so the same ethical question can look different to a nurse in Texas and a pharmacist in California. Pick your group below for a renewal guide and a plain-English page on what happens after a board complaint.

A few examples show why profession matters. Texas physicians need 2 or more formal hours on medical ethics and/or professional responsibility in every renewal cycle, and Texas nurses must complete a Nursing Jurisprudence and Ethics course. California pharmacists must take a Board-provided ethics webinar at every renewal. New York dentists take a single 3-hour jurisprudence and ethics course once. PAs maintain NCCPA certification with 100 CME credits every two years on top of whatever their state requires.

There is no national licensing regulator for health professionals. Each state has a practice act for each profession, such as a Medical Practice Act or Nurse Practice Act, and a state board enforces it through rules. A breach of either is typically labeled unprofessional conduct or professional misconduct. The FSMB, NCSBN, NABP, AADB and similar national organizations support boards and publish model policy, but they do not license you.

• Renewal. CE or CME hours, cycles and mandatory topics are set state by state and profession by profession. Many states require specific topics such as ethics or jurisprudence, medical errors, human trafficking or controlled-substance prescribing.
• Complaints. A board can open a case from a patient, an employer, another agency or on its own initiative. Many cases end in a letter of concern, a consent agreement or an agreed order rather than a full hearing.
• Reporting. Adverse actions that come from a formal board proceeding must be reported to the NPDB within 30 days, even when the state calls the agreement private.

Our guide to state board disciplinary action walks through each stage, the terms boards use and what becomes public.

State boards set the license rules, but several federal frameworks apply wherever you practice and appear throughout our courses:

• HIPAA's privacy, security and breach rules in 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164, plus 42 CFR Part 2, the confidentiality rule for SUD treatment records, amended by a 2024 final rule with compliance due February 16, 2026.
• Fraud and abuse laws enforced with HHS-OIG: the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute, the physician self-referral law (Stark) and exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid.
• The National Practitioner Data Bank (45 CFR Part 60), a confidential federal record of adverse licensure actions and malpractice payments that hospitals, health plans and boards query.
• Medicare Conditions of Participation for hospitals, including patient rights (42 CFR 482.13) and medical records (42 CFR 482.24).

Most free ethics modules teach principles in the abstract. Ours connect each topic to the way U.S. boards actually see it: what counts as unprofessional conduct, how a case is investigated, why honest records matter more than a perfect outcome, and what an NPDB report means for credentialing years later.

• Built on the codes you are judged against: the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, the 2025 ANA Code for nurses, the APhA Code of Ethics, the ADA Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct, the AAPA Guidelines and NCSBN's guides on boundaries and social media.
• Cases drawn from different professions and from large states such as California, Texas, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania.
• A structured reflective account with every course, so you can record what you learned and how your practice will change.
• One clear price: US$89 for 3 hours, with no subscription.

1. Choose a course from the course catalog and enroll online.
2. Start straight away and study at your own pace, with knowledge checks in each section.
3. Take the 20-question final assessment. The pass mark is 80%, or 16 correct answers.
4. Download your certificate of completion and complete your structured reflective account.

More detail is on how our courses work.

If a board order or consent agreement requires a course, read its wording closely. Many orders require a course approved in advance by the board, and some name the providers or standards that qualify. Check with your board, your attorney or your malpractice insurer before you enroll to meet an order. Our courses suit self-directed learning, preparation for a board response, and voluntary steps you and your counsel may choose to present.