Ethics and Ethical Standards for Doctors

This ethics course for doctors covers the decisions that come up in ordinary clinical work: how much to tell a patient about risk, what to do when a patient may lack capacity, when you can share information without consent, how to approach treatment at the end of life, and what to do when your own beliefs, interests or mistakes are part of the picture. It takes about two hours and is written for doctors practising in the UK.

The course is anchored in the GMC's Good medical practice 2024 and the detailed ethical guidance that sits beside it. Each topic moves from principle to the guidance, then to the law where the law decides the answer, such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Montgomery ruling on consent. Short case illustrations show how the guidance plays out, for example a GP reviewing an 88-year-old patient on eleven regular medicines after two falls.

It is a self-paced, reading-based course with reflection points, a written reflective account and a 15-question scenario assessment. You take it on our course portal, and a certificate of completion is issued when you pass.

The course is written for doctors, so the examples, the guidance and the account of the fitness to practise process all come from the GMC and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS). It suits:

• doctors in any specialty or grade who want structured CPD on medical ethics to discuss at appraisal;
• doctors whose decision about consent, capacity, confidentiality or end-of-life care has been questioned;
• doctors facing a concern about honesty, candour, boundaries or a conflict of interest, who want to rebuild their understanding of the standards before writing a reflection;
• physician associates and anaesthesia associates, who have been regulated by the GMC since December 2024 and work to the same standards.

If you are a nurse, dentist, pharmacist or allied health professional, the profession-specific ethics course for your regulator will fit better. Use Which course do I need? to find it, or browse all courses.

A conclusion, a quick-reference guide and a reference list close the course, followed by the reflective account.

The course is mapped to one regulator: the GMC. The table shows where each module meets the GMC's published standards, so you can name the right standard in an appraisal entry or reflection.

Always read the current version of the GMC guidance itself; it takes precedence over any course. Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider and is not affiliated with the GMC or the MPTS. For how the GMC's expectations fit together, see our GMC page.

Module 7 explains what the GMC looks for once a concern is raised. Since 24 November 2025, tribunals hearing doctors' cases have used the MPTS's Guidance for MPTS tribunals, which replaced the earlier sanctions guidance; read the current version for how insight and remediation are weighed. A course is one piece of that evidence, not the whole of it.

• Take the course with the concern in mind. Note which module speaks to what happened, such as consent, candour or boundaries.
• Write the reflective account afterwards. The course asks what you learned, which situation in your own practice you would now approach differently, and your action plan. Our reflective statement builder helps you structure it in your own words.
• Show the change in practice. Supervision, audit, feedback and testimonials from colleagues who know about the concern show that learning has been applied over time.
• Keep the certificate with the reflection. The certificate records completion; the reflection shows understanding.

The course itself says that learning should be specific to the concern and sustained, and that a single course completed shortly before a hearing carries little weight. If you face a GMC investigation, take advice from your defence organisation or a solicitor before you submit anything.

The course is designed to take about two hours, including the reading, the reflection points, the reflective account and the assessment. Record the time you actually spend, which may be more or less.

• Self-paced reading with clinical ethics cases and reflection points.
• A final assessment of 15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions, with a pass mark of 12 out of 15 (80%).
• A written reflective account. It is stored on your own device and is not sent to us, so save or copy it before you leave.
• A certificate of completion issued by Healthcare Practise UK.

The GMC does not set a fixed number of CPD hours. Doctors bring continuing professional development to annual appraisal as one of six types of supporting information and reflect on it there (GMC revalidation requirements). Credit targets you may have seen come from royal colleges, not from the GMC.

For a broader look at professional standards for doctors, Professionalism and Professional Standards for Doctors works through Good medical practice in more depth. Medical Ethics for Healthcare Professionals spends longer on hard clinical dilemmas. If you are writing about what went wrong, the Module on Insight pairs naturally with this course.

This course is not part of a fixed pack, but it is the doctors' ethics course that the remediation pathway adds to two packs: the Conduct and Trust Pack and the Probity Remediation Pack. Choose the pack that matches the concern and add this course alongside it.