Sexual Safety and Preventing Sexual Misconduct in Healthcare

This sexual safety training helps healthcare professionals recognise, prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in health and care settings. It covers patients and staff alike: keeping clear boundaries in examinations and digital contact, dealing with harassment from colleagues or patients, acting when you see something, and reporting and recording concerns properly.

It is written for doctors, nurses, midwives, nursing associates, dental and pharmacy professionals, allied health professionals, optometrists, osteopaths, chiropractors, social workers and non-clinical health and care staff across the UK. It also suits professionals who are preparing reflection after a concern about their own conduct.

The course starts from a simple point that many people find uncomfortable: intention is not the test. What matters is whether behaviour was unwanted and sexual, and the effect it had. It treats sexual misconduct as a spectrum, from comments and messages through unnecessary touching to criminal offences, and shows how serious harm usually follows smaller breaches that nobody challenged.

It is designed to take approximately 2 hours, including reading, reflection points, a written reflective account and a 15-question assessment. 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 2 sets out the legal and professional framework, noting where the position differs between nations.

The course draws out three expectations that run through every regulator's standards: never use your position to pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship; never act in a sexual way towards colleagues; and act when you see or are told about sexual misconduct by others. Good medical practice now says this explicitly for doctors. Your regulator's current standards always take precedence, and our regulator pages summarise what each one expects more broadly.

The course has six numbered modules, each with key terms, case illustrations, reflection points and "apply it" tasks.

• Understanding sexual safety and sexual misconduct. Definitions, the spectrum of behaviour, and why physical closeness, hierarchy, culture and lone working create particular risks in healthcare.
• The legal and regulatory framework. Harassment and employment law, sexual offences legislation in each nation, regulators' expectations, and organisational duties under national frameworks.
• Professional boundaries with patients. Boundary crossings, violations and drift, with the early warning signs; relationships with patients, former patients and people close to them; intimate examinations, consent and chaperones; and social media and messaging.
• Sexual safety among colleagues. Recognising harassment at work, harassment by patients and the public, the "five Ds" of active bystander action (direct, distract, delegate, delay, document), and supporting a colleague who discloses.
• Responding, reporting and recording. What to do when a patient raises a concern, choosing between internal and external reporting routes, recording facts accurately, and how safeguarding, the police and regulators fit together.
• Self-awareness, insight and culture. Recognising your own risk factors, what to do if your own conduct is questioned, and practical steps for a sexually safe team.

The cases are drawn from everyday practice: a healthcare assistant repeatedly called "sweetheart" by a senior registrar, a dental hygienist whose patient finds her on social media, a GP whose patient becomes anxious during a pelvic examination, a scrub nurse who interrupts a consultant's remark in theatre, and a receptionist who hears a concern about a sonographer she knows well. A quick-reference guide at the end lists what to do in each situation and the support services to know, including Rape Crisis, Nexus in Northern Ireland, Survivors UK and Samaritans.

You finish by writing a short reflective account to three prompts: what you have learned about the spectrum of misconduct and boundary drift; how you will act as a bystander and support colleagues; and what you will change in your own practice, for example around chaperones, digital contact or team culture, and how you will know it has worked.

The assessment has 15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions, covering situations such as a patient who asks a physiotherapist out two weeks after discharge, a dementia patient who touches a carer during personal care, and an allegation being looked at by an employer, the police and a regulator at once. The pass mark is 12 out of 15 (80%). If you fall short, you revisit the linked sections and try again. On completion you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK.

For CPD, record the time you actually spend. Nurses, midwives and nursing associates should note that self-directed online learning normally counts towards the NMC's individual CPD hours rather than its 20 participatory hours, unless you complete it with others. Doctors reflect on CPD at appraisal; the GMC does not set fixed hours. The HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC, GCC and Social Work England each set their own CPD rules, so check what applies to you, and check whether your employer requires a specific course. Keep your certificate and your reflection together.

Individual CPD. The course supports awareness of sexual safety. It does not replace any training your employer requires, including the NHS England e-learning that accompanies the national policy framework, so check what your organisation expects.

Team training. Practices, clinics, care homes and agencies can assign it to several staff at once through team credits, which is a practical way to give a whole team the same baseline on chaperones, group chats and how to raise a concern.

After a concern. Module 6 explains what insight looks like when your own conduct has been questioned: seek advice early, do not contact the person who raised the concern, reflect on impact rather than intention, and evidence change over time. It is also candid about the limits. Regulators recognise that some sexual misconduct, particularly abuse of patients, is so serious that it is incompatible with continued registration however much the professional has reflected. A course can support reflection; panels decide. Our professional boundaries remediation page sets out a wider plan, and the reflective statement builder helps you structure a reflection in your own words.

This course sits in our conduct and professional behaviour group. Learners often pair it with:

• Bullying, Harassment and Workplace Civility in Healthcare, for the wider picture of how teams treat each other;
• Tackling Discrimination, Racism and Unconscious Bias in Healthcare, as harassment often overlaps with racism, disability and age;
• Managing Anger and Professional Behaviour in Healthcare, for behaviour under pressure;
• Privacy, Consent, and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice, for more depth on intimate examinations.

If you are unsure which titles fit your situation, the which course do I need tool suggests a short list.