Privacy, Consent, and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice

Concerns about intimate examinations, poor explanation and lack of consent are among the most serious matters regulators deal with, because they involve the patient’s body and sense of safety. The course makes a point worth hearing: many complaints come not from deliberate misconduct but from examinations that were clinically justified yet poorly explained, carried out without a clear offer of a chaperone, or not properly recorded.

This chaperone training course covers all three together: privacy, consent and chaperones. It takes about 2 hours, including a 15-question scenario test and a reflective account, and ends with a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK.

• Doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals who carry out or assist with intimate examinations.
• Dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, osteopaths and chiropractors whose work involves close physical contact or undressing.
• Staff who act as chaperones and want to understand the role properly.
• Registrants facing an investigation about consent, privacy or an intimate examination.

If your case is about a boundary concern rather than consent or chaperoning, start with the professional boundaries page.

Clear rules on when to offer a chaperone

Module 5 explains that a chaperone should be offered for intimate examinations of the breasts, genitalia or rectum, whatever the sex or gender of the patient and the professional, and for other examinations involving close contact or undressing that the patient may find intimate. It covers who should act as a chaperone, where they should stand, and what to do if a patient declines.

Records that protect patients and you

Module 4 sets out what a good record holds: the reason for the examination, the explanation given, the patient’s consent, the chaperone offer and whether it was accepted or declined, and the name and role of any chaperone. A signed form is not proof of valid consent if the discussion was inadequate.

The main reference points are the GMC’s guidance on Intimate examinations and chaperones and Decision making and consent, in effect since November 2020. The consent guidance sets out seven principles, including that all patients have the right to be involved in decisions about their care and are presumed to have capacity. See what the GMC expects.

The course also covers the NMC Code (see the NMC page), the GDC, GPhC, HCPC, GOC, GOsC and GCC standards, and the law on capacity and rights, including the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and UK equivalents, the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010, consent for children and young people, and the Montgomery ruling on material risks. Always check the current version of your regulator’s guidance.

If your case involves an intimate examination or consent, the course’s reflective prompts focus on the questions decision makers ask: how you will change the way you explain examinations or offer chaperones, and how you will check your records reflect the change. A practical plan:

1. Complete the course and pass the assessment (12 out of 15).
2. Write the reflective account, anonymised, in your own words. The reflective statement builder helps you structure it.
3. Change your practice and audit it: for example, review a sample of your own records for chaperone offers and consent notes, then repeat the review later.
4. Add learning on boundaries and professionalism if the concern goes beyond process.

Allegations of a sexual nature are serious and need legal advice. A course cannot answer them; it can only support the learning side of your response.

Healthcare Practise UK is an independent CPD provider. We are not affiliated with any regulator or with the NHS, and no regulator has reviewed this course. A course can support your reflection and remediation, but your regulator, case examiners or a panel make the decisions, and nothing you buy here predicts an outcome. If you are under investigation, take advice from your defence organisation, union or a solicitor as well.

This course is part of the Boundaries Pack with Professional Boundaries for Clinicians, Professionalism and Boundaries in Social Media, Professionalism for Healthcare Professionals, Insight and Reflection. It also appears on the confidentiality and social media page. Browse the full catalogue or use the course finder.