Professional, ethical and legal practice
Professional, ethical and legal practice
This domain tests whether you can practise within Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal frame and the Physiotherapy Board’s standards, not just whether you know ethical theory. Expect questions on the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, scope of practice, informed consent, privacy, professional boundaries, record keeping and fitness to practise.
Core rules
- Registration is not a licence to do anything physiotherapy-adjacent: practise only within your scope and competence, and seek supervision or refer when risk exceeds your skill.
- Consent is a process, not a signature. Under the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights, assume capacity unless there is reason to doubt it; explain benefits, risks, alternatives and costs; document informed refusal.
- Health information is protected by the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code. Share only the minimum needed, with the right people, for the right purpose.
- Keep contemporaneous, legible records: assessment findings, clinical reasoning, consent, advice, referrals and declined care.
- Maintain boundaries. Gifts, dual relationships, social media contact and treating whānau can blur power; seek senior or Board guidance rather than improvising.
Worked example
A patient with neck pain asks for high-velocity cervical manipulation “like my chiropractor did”. You are not trained in cervical manipulation and consider it high risk. You explain what you can offer, why you are declining that technique, and offer referral. The patient accepts exercise but refuses imaging. You document the discussion, refusal and plan. The legal issue is not whether the patient wants it; it is competence, consent and risk.
Traps
- Treating a signed form as proof of understanding.
- Discussing a patient in a corridor or on social media.
- Failing to document a refusal or referral.
- Letting personal values override legal rights.