About this course
Honesty and trustworthiness mean stronger patient relationships, professional integrity, and safer care.
[podcast mini /media/goc-standard-16-intro.mp3]
Trust—it’s the foundation of every clinical encounter. Patients may not always understand the technical details of your decisions, but they know when you are being clear, open, and honest. A moment of honesty builds confidence; a moment of doubt can erode it completely. And in optical practice, that trust isn’t just about clinical skill—it extends to how you communicate, how you record, and even how you present commercial options.
GOC Standard 16 reminds us that honesty and trustworthiness are not optional—they are the bedrock of safe, person-centred care. From documenting notes accurately, to admitting uncertainty, to separating clinical need from sales conversations, these are the everyday behaviours that protect patients and preserve professional integrity.
This course will equip you with practical tools and scripts that make honesty the easy choice, even under pressure. By applying them, you’ll not only reduce complaints and professional risk—you’ll create stronger, safer relationships with patients who know they can place their confidence fully in you.
Being open and reliable is at the heart of professional practice. This course explores how to communicate honestly, maintain transparency, and uphold the trust patients place in you. With practical guidance, you will be ready to meet GOC Standard 16 with confidence.
This course is relevant to the whole optical team, including
- Registered optical professionals wanting reliable CPD mapped to GOC Standards
- Locums, jobseekers, and overseas practitioners needing to demonstrate current knowledge
- Colleagues addressing professional challenges who require structured CPD for reflection and remediation
- Managers and teams who want consistent, defensible training
CPD Time: 60 minutes (1 CE Credit / 1 Non-interactive CPD Point)
Assessment: 10 MCQs. Pass mark 80%. more…
On passing the assessment you will immediately receive a CPD Certificate.
Customer feedback on this course
- Clear, practical and directly relevant to day-to-day consultations.
- Useful templates and checklists that improved our record-keeping straight away.
- Well structured scenarios helped the team recognise and manage conflicts of interest.
- Excellent guidance on disclosure and what to document after a caution.
- Concise, realistic advice that made honest communication easier under pressure.
Aim:
The aim of this course is to meet GOC Standard 16 by explaining how honesty and trustworthiness apply across clinical care, records, commercial activity and personal conduct.
Course objective:
• to enable optical practitioners and teams to apply professional integrity in consultations, records, referrals and financial dealings to protect patients and public confidence.
Anticipated learning outcomes:
On course completion you will be able to:
• define honesty and trustworthiness in professional optical practice.
• communicate truthfully with patients and colleagues to support valid consent.
• maintain accurate, contemporaneous records and addenda that withstand scrutiny.
• identify and manage conflicts of interest and document commercial recommendations transparently.
• disclose cautions or convictions appropriately and reflect on personal conduct affecting Fitness to Practise.
GOC Framework Mapping:
Standard 16: Honesty and Trustworthiness
Domain: Professionalism
Learning content:
Why Honesty Matters | Honesty in Clinical Practice | Scenario: Clinical Honesty | Financial Integrity & Conflicts of Interest | Scenario: Financial Honesty | Honesty Beyond Work: Personal Conduct | Scenario: Personal Honesty | Convictions and Cautions | Scenario: Legal Honesty | Everyday Professional Honesty | Reflection and Continuous Improvement | MCQ
View full course description
GOC Standard 16: Honesty and Trustworthiness in Optical Practice
Course Description
Why Honesty Matters
This page explains why honesty underpins professional trust and public confidence. It covers the GOC expectations, common pressures that erode honesty and high-yield habits to protect standards, safety and reputation.
Honesty in Clinical Practice
Practical guidance for truthful consultations, valid consent and contemporaneous records. Learn how to save device outputs, check copy-forward, manage uncertainty and make defensible addenda.
Scenario: Clinical Honesty
Realistic scenarios on inflating CVs, backdating notes and corrective actions. Focus on documenting who was informed and system fixes to protect patients and the organisation.
Financial Integrity & Conflicts of Interest
How to separate clinical need from commercial choice, declare interests and sponsors, and use transparency checklists and option matrices to align team practice and audits.
Scenario: Financial Honesty
Scenarios covering undisclosed sponsorship and upselling pressure. Practical scripts for declining promotion, disclosure steps and audit responses.
Honesty Beyond Work: Personal Conduct
Explains how private behaviour and online conduct can affect Fitness to Practise. Advice on privacy settings, risky behaviours to avoid and proportionate workplace controls.
Scenario: Personal Honesty
Scenarios on pirated software use and violent conduct with guidance on stopping behaviour, reflection, support routes and documentation.
Convictions and Cautions
Your obligations to disclose cautions and convictions to the GOC. How to prepare transparent submissions with a reflective account, remediation and workplace actions.
Scenario: Legal Honesty
Practical steps following a caution or conviction: informing employer and regulator, agreeing safeguards and recording remediation evidence.
Everyday Professional Honesty
Routine practices: clear explanations, accurate handovers, truthful CPD and templates to reduce bias. Daily integrity checks and team habits to make honest decisions easier.
Reflection and Continuous Improvement
Structured reflection for grey-area decisions, near-miss tracking, audits and an improvement cycle with ownership and review dates to embed integrity.
Course Completion
You will complete a feedback survey, take the multiple-choice exam and receive a CPD certificate on passing. Reflect on how to apply checklists and templates in your practice.
You can copy and adapt this example PDP entry for your own needs and circumstances.
| PDP Learning or Maintenance need |
| Maintain compliance with GOC Standard 16: honesty and trustworthiness. |
| How does this relate to my field of practice? |
| Directly relevant to consultations, record-keeping, dispensing decisions, complaints handling and Fitness to Practise obligations. |
| Which development outcome(s) does it link to? |
| Standard 16 |
| What benefit will this have to my work? |
| Improved patient trust, defensible records, reduced FtP risk and clearer management of conflicts of interest. |
| How will I meet this learning or maintenance need? |
| Complete this course, apply checklists and templates, and reflect on ambiguous scenarios in supervision. |
| When will I complete the activity? |