South Dakota social workers must complete 30 continuing education (CE) contact hours every two years, with at least 6 hours devoted to ethics. Engaging in regular ethics training keeps you updated on evolving standards, strengthens confidence in decision making, and ensures your practice is compliant with South Dakota licensing rules. Ethics courses are designed around real-world challenges, enhance your personal integrity, equip you to handle ethical dilemmas, and help meet licensure requirements.
Here are options and tips for satisfying your ethics CE requirements:
- SDAHO LifeCircle webinars frequently offer sessions covering ethics.
- SDAHO education 2025 on-demand recordings, such as Healthcare Ethics in Action, Ethics of Confidentiality, and the 2-part series Workplace Ethics in Healthcare.
- Click here to register for SDAHO webinar Ethical Decision Making in Complex Patient Care on December 2.
- Look for course titles and/or learning objectives featuring ‘ethics’.
- MJHS Free Ethics Webinars: MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care regularly offers free webinars focused on ethics in social work practice. Seek out offerings with ‘ethics’ in the title or objectives, as credits from these sessions help fulfill your ethics requirements.
- Minnesota Bioethics (University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics): This organization provides classes and free webinars on ethical topics, including disability ethics, biomedical ethics, and social context of health and illness. Courses such as “BTHX 5650: Disability Ethics” and “BTHX 5325: Biomedical Ethics” are excellent choices. Also, on December 2, there is a free webinar Unrepresented: The Ethics of Caring for Patients Without Surrogates.
- CAPC Membership: Check to see if your organization is a member of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC). Several South Dakota healthcare organizations have this membership, and you will then have access to a robust library of ethics webinars at no cost. Webinars related to ethical challenges in palliative care often count toward social work CE ethics credits.
While the word “ethics” does not necessarily need to be in the title of the course, the course description should clearly indicate it is related to ethics. As an extra measure, you may want to attach the course description to the CE certificate so it can easily be verified as meeting the ethic requirement.
Document your CE activities for at least three years in case of an audit by the South Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners. Most reputable providers will retain records, but keeping your own list is highly recommended.
Stay informed, stay compliant, and sharpen your ethical practice by making the most of these continuing education opportunities!
