How to Ensure a Similar Mistake or Misconduct Will Not Be Repeated

This risk of repetition course focuses on the forward-looking question at the heart of fitness to practise decisions: how can you, and others, be confident that a similar mistake or misconduct will not be repeated? Almost every professional who has made a mistake sincerely intends it never to happen again. Regulators, employers and patients cannot rely on intentions alone, and well-meant promises often fade once the pressure of an investigation passes.

The course is titled How to Ensure a Similar Mistake or Misconduct Will Not Be Repeated in Future. It takes about 3 hours including reflection and the assessment, and draws on UK regulatory guidance, patient safety science and behaviour change research. It complements, rather than repeats, the modules on reflection, insight and remediation.

Who it is for

• Doctors, nurses, midwives, nursing associates, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals and social workers involved in an incident, complaint or concern.
• Supervisors, appraisers and managers supporting them.
• Anyone who wants practical tools for preventing a mistake from recurring.

1. Why preventing recurrence matters. Recurrence covers related errors and the same pattern in a new setting, not just an identical event; why promises to "be more careful" are among the weakest safeguards.
2. How UK regulators assess the risk of repetition. The forward-looking test from Cohen v GMC (2008) and CHRE v NMC and Grant (2011); the NMC's guidance on whether a concern has been addressed; the MPTS guidance in effect from 24 November 2025; other regulators; repeated concerns; and employer and national safety systems such as PSIRF and LFPSE.
3. Why mistakes and misconduct recur. Slips, lapses, mistakes and violations; the Swiss cheese model and latent conditions; drift and normalisation of deviance; rationalisations behind behavioural concerns; health, fatigue and stress; and why insight fades.
4. Designing stronger safeguards. The hierarchy of intervention effectiveness, personal checklists and pauses, if-then implementation intentions, habit formation, the COM-B model, safe use of technology and fixing the system around you.
5. Preventing recurrence of specific concerns. Clinical errors, medication and prescribing, records and communication, dishonesty, professional and sexual boundaries, conduct outside work and online, and health concerns.
6. Building a personal recurrence prevention plan. Mapping the concern, triggers, early warning signs, planned responses, a support network, and a worked plan.
7. Demonstrating that repetition is highly unlikely. What decision makers look for, change tested under real conditions, independent corroboration, and signs that risk remains.
8. Sustaining change across a career. Self-audit, near misses, transitions such as new roles and locum work, candour if something happens again, and helping others learn.

The course is mapped to the GMC, NMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC and GCC, and also discusses Social Work England. Each regulator asks, in its own words, whether a concern is likely to recur:

The course also covers the professional duty of candour and, for organisations registered with the Care Quality Commission in England, the statutory duty under regulation 20, because candour if something happens again is itself evidence of changed values. Read your own regulator's wording; it shapes how your evidence is best presented. Our GMC and NMC guides link to the source documents.

The core output of the course is a personal recurrence prevention plan of one or two pages. The worked example is a nurse whose concern was an insulin dosing error after an interruption:

Decision makers want a coherent story: what went wrong and why, a plan aimed at those causes, evidence the plan has been used, and evidence it has worked under the conditions that caused the problem. The course is direct that "one hundred per cent certain" is less credible than a specific plan with an honest view of residual risk. Write up your plan and reflection in your own words; the reflective statement builder helps you structure it. Panels make the decisions, so take advice from your representative.

• Learning time: about 3 hours, including reading, reflective prompts, the plan, the reflective account and the assessment.
• Format: self-paced reading with practice cases from many professions, comparison tables and a worked plan.
• Assessment: 15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions, pass mark 12 out of 15 (80%).
• Certificate: a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK, plus a recurrence prevention plan suitable for your portfolio, appraisal or regulatory evidence.

The NMC's guidance gives more weight to training with a practical element and formal assessment. This online course has a formal assessment but no supervised practice, so pair it with observed practice, audits or supervision in your workplace.

Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. This course is not approved or endorsed by any UK regulator, and it does not replace your regulator's standards, legal advice or advice from your defence organisation, union or indemnity provider.

Most clinical cases turn on recurrence, so this course anchors the pack on the clinical competence page, alongside the clinical competence course, the teamwork course and the record-keeping course. It also belongs in the pack on the prescribing page for medication incidents. See every title in the course catalogue, or answer a few questions in Which course do I need?