Probity for Healthcare Professionals

This probity course covers the honesty, integrity and ethical conduct expected of UK healthcare professionals across clinical, academic and financial practice. It is written for doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals, optometrists, osteopaths and chiropractors, and it is especially useful if you are facing a complaint, investigation or fitness to practise process that involves honesty.

Probity cases are among the most serious that regulators consider, because dishonesty goes to whether a professional can be trusted at all. Many of them begin away from patients, in timesheets, expense claims, CVs, CPD records, research, declarations to employers and responses to an investigation. The course works through each of these areas, explains how regulators and courts decide whether conduct was dishonest, and shows what honest reflection and targeted remediation look like.

It is designed to take approximately 2 hours, including the reading, reflection points, a written reflective account and a 15-question assessment. It is self-paced, so unlike a scheduled live event you can start the day you need it. You buy and take it on our course portal; see the course catalogue for related titles. Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with any UK regulator or the NHS, and no regulator has reviewed this course.

Module 4 summarises what each regulator says about honesty and integrity. The wording differs, but the duties overlap closely.

The course also covers the law behind probity: the Fraud Act 2006, the Bribery Act 2010 and the professional and statutory duties of candour. Your regulator's current standards always take precedence. Our GMC and NMC pages set out what those regulators expect more broadly.

The course explains the test courts and panels use for dishonesty, set by the Supreme Court in Ivey v Genting Casinos (2017): first, what did the person actually know or believe; second, was the conduct dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people? "I didn't think it was dishonest" or "everyone does it" rarely helps. The cases show how that plays out:

• Records: a nurse refuses to fill in observations she did not do, even though the patient was clearly well.
• Money: a physiotherapist's mileage claims, a GP's private work during sick leave, NHS claims for treatment not completed.
• Academic work: a reflective account shared between colleagues, and honest use of AI tools in writing.
• Leadership: a consultant writing a fair reference for a registrar with documented problems.
• Declarations: a dental hygienist's police caution abroad, which still has to be declared at renewal.

A table of aggravating and mitigating factors shows why two nurses with similar conduct can face very different outcomes depending on how they respond. The course also covers misleading omissions, signing documents, conflicts of interest, research integrity and why dishonesty during an investigation can be treated more seriously than the original matter.

Each section ends with a reflection point, a worked example and an "apply it" task, such as checking one form you recently signed and confirming every entry is accurate. At the end you write a short reflective account to three prompts: what you learned about probity, which area of your practice carries the most probity risk for you and why, and what you will do differently and how you will show it.

The assessment has 15 scenario-based questions, starting with the legal test for dishonesty. The pass mark is 12 (80%); if you fall short, you revisit the linked sections and try again. As the course itself says, passing supports your learning record but does not by itself demonstrate insight or remediation. On completion you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK.

For CPD, record the time you actually spend. Nurses and midwives should note that self-directed online learning normally counts towards the NMC's individual CPD hours rather than its 20 participatory hours. Doctors reflect on CPD at appraisal; the GMC does not set fixed hours. Keep your certificate and reflection together.

Regulators treat dishonesty as harder to remediate than a gap in clinical skill, because it concerns character and attitude rather than knowledge. The NMC's guidance on whether a concern can be addressed, Social Work England's sanctions guidance and the MPTS's earlier sanctions guidance all reflected this; for doctors, check how the current Guidance for MPTS tribunals (in force from 24 November 2025) puts it. That makes the quality of your insight and evidence especially important.

The course's remediation section is practical. It shows how to name the conduct accurately in a reflection ("I made a false entry", not "an error in my paperwork"), why minimising language suggests continuing risk, and how to match remediation to the concern:

Testimonials carry most weight when the writer knows about the concern and still speaks to your honesty. Take advice from your defence organisation or union before you respond to a regulator. The reflective statement builder helps you structure a reflection in your own words, and our probity and dishonesty page sets out a full plan. Courses support remediation; panels decide.

A probity concern usually touches more than one area. The Probity Remediation Pack groups this course with:

• Financial Integrity for Healthcare Professionals, for timesheets, expenses, gifts and conflicts of interest in more depth;
• Professionalism in Documentation for Healthcare Professionals, for honest, contemporaneous records and retrospective entries;
• Rebuilding Trust of Patients, Public and Healthcare Regulators, for restoring trust over time;
• the Module on Insight, the Module on Reflection and the Module on Remediation.

When you use the remediation pathway, it also adds the ethics course for your profession. The pack appears below with a single basket link. If your situation does not fit neatly, the which course do I need tool asks four questions and suggests titles.