California Law and Professional Ethics Course (2026)

About This Course

This online California RCP-specific ethics course focuses on the theories of ethical decision making as it applies to: scope of practice, informed consent, confidentiality, discrimination, conflicts of interest, illegal or unethical acts, fraud, research, and more.

California RCPs have a requirement for a course on California law and ethics. This course satisfies that requirement for the Respiratory Care Board of California.

The post-course test contains 30 questions. Successful completion requires a score of 70% or more on the post-course test. Participants will be allowed two attempts to pass the post-course test.

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate between morals and ethics; distinguish between ethical problem, distress, and dilemma; identify the three components of an ethical problem; and identify the six steps in the analysis of an ethical problem.
• Identify and define deontological theories, teleological theories, and virtue ethics; and describe the benefits of evaluation in future decision-making. situations.
• Define decisional capacity; differentiate between informed consent and implied consent; identify how informed consent is applied to minors and those who lack decisional capacity; and define and explain advance directives, to include living wills, power of attorney and do not attempt resuscitation/limitation of treatment orders.
• Define and explain confidentiality and the release of information; define HIPAA and understand its impact on the health care environment; identify what information is confidential and how it relates to the patient’s right to privacy; explain truthful disclosure and its impact on the health care environment.
• Define and relate professional ethics to the health care professions; define “self-deception” and how it affects personal integrity; explain the purpose of a scope of practice; and recognize consequences of practicing outside scope of practice.
• Relate the need for continuing education to the maintenance of clinical competency and identify the role continuing education plays in patient safety.
• Define conflict of interest; define real and perceived conflicts of interest; and recognize situations in which a conflict of interest exists.
• Distinguish between intentional and unintentional torts; identify common unethical or illegal acts that result in disciplinary action; identify the three basic elements of fraud; identify the consequences of tort law violations; and distinguish the differences between negligence and malpractice; and understand the licensure issues affecting respiratory care practitioners.
• Relate relevant history regarding biomedical research to current research practice; identify directives for biomedical research, to include the Nuremburg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, the Belmont report, and 45 CFR 46; identify the role of the Institutional Review Board in biomedical research.
• Cite the requirements of the laws and regulations governing the practice of respiratory care in the state of California including patient related violations.
• Cite the requirements of the laws and regulations governing the practice of respiratory care in the state of California including license administration violations.
• Cite the requirements of the laws and regulations governing the practice of respiratory care in the state of California including conviction violations.

Please note that all programs require the participant to view the entire program (video content of each module) and associated module quizzes prior to taking the final quiz to obtain a course certificate. Also, you must allow pop-up windows to view this course.