March 08, 2018
June 2019

How we changed and grew in 2018

Our 2018 Annual Report, titled “Partners in Safety,” is out now! It highlights the many ways CNO collaborated with and reached out to nurses, patients, members of the public, nurse employers, academics and others over the last year. We all need to work together to uphold safe nursing care for the people of Ontario.

The easy-to-read, visually impactful report includes a review of our five biggest accomplishments in 2018... 

Our 2018 Annual Report, titled “Partners in Safety,” is out now! It highlights the many ways CNO collaborated with and reached out to nurses, patients, members of the public, nurse employers, academics and others over the last year. We all need to work together to uphold safe nursing care for the people of Ontario.

The easy-to-read, visually impactful report includes a review of our five biggest accomplishments in 2018:

  • The new Code of Conduct for nurses. The Code helps the public understand what to expect from you when receiving care. It describes the behaviour and conduct all nurses are professionally accountable to provide. We translated the Code into six languages to make sure it is accessible to more Ontarians.

  • The Nurses’ Health Program. This best-in-class program encourages nurses with substance use and/or mental health disorders to seek treatment early. We collaborated with the Ontario Nurses’ Association, Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario and Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario to develop it. We believe that with the right support and opportunity for education, treatment and recovery, nurses can continue or return to safe nursing practice.

  • We put the registration process for new nurses online. This new tool is letting applicants register with CNO faster and more efficiently.

  • We launched a new way of assessing and approving Nursing Education Programs. The process helps us to ensure that all nursing graduates in Ontario are ready to practice safely when they start to work.

  • We collaborated more with patients, nurse employers, academics and other experts who could help us learn and improve. Diverse input improves the ways we deal with public safety concerns.

In the report, you’ll also find statistics and facts, such as how many applications we received last year, and how much faster we can register internationally educated RPNs now.

Take a few minutes to read our 2018 Annual Report, then share your comments and questions with us.

About CNO

The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is the regulator of the nursing profession in Ontario. It is not a school or a nursing association. CNO acts in the public interest by:

  • assessing qualifications and registering individuals who want to practice nursing in Ontario.
  • setting the practice standards of the profession that nurses in Ontario are expected to meet.
  • promoting nurses' continuing competence through a quality assurance program.
  • holding nurses accountable to those standards by addressing complaints or reports about nursing care.

The College was founded in 1963. By establishing the College, the Ontario government was acknowledging that the nursing profession had the ability to govern itself and put the public's well-being ahead of professional interests.

For the latest information, please see our Nursing Statistics page.

Anyone who wants to use a nursing-related title — Registered Nurse (RN), Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) or Nurse Practitioner (NP) must become a member of CNO.

Frequently Asked Questions

Go to the public Register, Find a Nurse, to conduct a search for the nurse. Contact us if you can't find the person you are looking for.

All public information available about nurses is posted in the public Register, Find a Nurse, which contains profiles of every nurse in Ontario. Publicly available information about nurses include their registration history, business address, and information related to pending disciplinary hearings or past findings.

Unregistered practitioners are people who are seeking employment in nursing or holding themselves out as being able to practice nursing in Ontario, but who are not qualified to do so. They are not registered members of CNO. Only people registered with CNO can use nursing-related titles or perform certain procedures that could cause harm if carried out by a non-registered health professional. CNO takes the issue of unregistered practitioners seriously. See Unregistered Practitioners for more information.

To ensure procedural fairness for both the patient (or client) and the nurse, the Regulated Health Professions Act requires that information gathered during an investigation remain confidential until the matter is referred to the Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practise Committee. CNO will not disclose any information that could identify patients (or clients) or compromise an investigation. See Investigations: A Process Guide for more information.

Information obtained during an investigation will become public if the matter is referred to a disciplinary hearing. If a complaint is not referred to a hearing, no information will be available publicly.

See CNO's hearings schedule, which is updated as hearing dates are confirmed. Hearings at CNO are open to the public and the media. For details on how to attend a hearing, contact the Hearings Administration Team.

A summary of allegations and the disciplinary panel outcomes can be found on the public Register, Find a Nurse. Full decisions and reasons are also available.

Where a disciplinary panel makes a finding of professional misconduct, they have the authority to reprimand a nurse, and suspend or revoke a nurse's registration. Terms, conditions and limitations can also be imposed on a nurse's registration, which restricts their practice for a set period. Nurses can also be required to complete remedial activities, such as reviewing CNO documents and meeting with an expert, before returning to practice.

For detailed information see the Sexual Abuse Prevention section.

Related links