Clinical Physiologists Registration Board

Clinical Physiologists Registration Board

To download a printable copy of the standards of conduct, click on this link:

Standards conduct.doc.docx

Summary of Standards of Conduct:

You must always keep high standards of conduct. You must always:

1. act in the best interests of your patients, clients and users;

2. respect the confidentiality of your patients, clients and users;

3. maintain high standards of personal conduct; and

4. provide any important information about conduct, competence or health.

1. You must act in the best interests of your patients, clients and users:

You are personally responsible for making sure that you promote and protect the best interests of the people you care for. You must respect and take account of these factors when providing care, and must not exploit or abuse the relationship with a patients, client, user or carer. You must not allow your views about patient's, client's or user's sex, age, colour, race, disability, sexuality, social or economic status, lifestyle, culture or religious beliefs to affect the way you treat them or the professional advice you give them.

You must at all times, act to protect the interests of patients, clients, users, carers and other members of the public. You must try to provide the best possible care, either alone or with other health or social-care professions. You must not do anything, or allow anything to be done, that you have good reason to believe will put the health or safety of a patient, client or user in danger. This includes both your own actions and those of others.

When working in a team you are still responsible for your professional conduct, any care or professional advice you provide, any failure to act and any tasks you ask someone else to carry out. You must protect patients if you believe that they are threatened by a colleague's conduct, performance or health. The safety of patients. clients, and users must come before any personal or professional loyalties at all times. As soon as you become aware of any situation that puts a patient, client or user at risk, you should discuss the matter with a senior professional colleague. If you feel that you cannot raise the matter with a senior colleague, you can contact the Registrar.

2. You must respect the confidentiality of your patients, clients and users:

You must treat information about patients, clients or users as confidential and use it only for the purpose for which it was given. You must not knowingly release any personal or confidential information to anyone who is not entitled to it, and you should check that people who ask for information are entitled to it. You must only use information about a patient, client or user:

to continue to care for that person; or
for the purposes where that person has given specific permission to use the information.

You must also keep to the conditions of any relevant data-protection legislation and privacy laws and follow best practice for handling confidential information relating to individuals at all times. Best practice is likely to change over time, and you must stay up to date. You must be particularly careful not to reveal, deliberately or accidentally, confidential information that is stored on computers.

3. You must keep high standards of personal conduct:

You must keep high standards of personal conduct, as well as professional conduct. You must not do anything that may affect someone's treatment by, or confidence in, you.

We can consider taking action against you if you are convicted of a criminal offence or have accepted a police caution. We will always consider each case individually and we will take decisions in the light of the circumstances of the case.

However, as guidance, we will seriously consider rejecting an application for registration, or striking you off the register if you are already registered, if you are convicted of a criminal offence that involves one of the following types of behaviour:

violence
abuse
sexual misconduct
supplying drugs
drink-driving offences where someone was hurt or killed
serious offences involving dishonesty
any serious criminal offences which you received a prison sentence for.

This is not a complete list. We will always look at any conviction or caution that we learn of.

4. You must provide any important information about conduct, competence or health:

You must tell us (and other relevant regulators and professional bodies) if you have any important information about your conduct or competence, or about other registrants and health professionals you work with. In particular, you must let us know straight away if you are:

convicted of a criminal offence (other than a minor motoring offence) or accept a police caution;
disciplined by any organisation responsible for regulating or licensing a health or social-care professions; or
suspended or placed under a practice restriction by an employer or similar organisation because of concerns about your conduct or competence.

You should also provide information about the conduct or competence of other healthcare providers if someone who is entitled to know asks for it. This is related to your duty to act in the best interests of your patients, clients or users, which was explained earlier. You should also tell us about any significant changes in your health, especially if you have changed your practice as a result of medical advice. We will keep this information private but it is vital that you tell us, and if you do not, we may take action against you.