March 23, 2023
March 2023

CNO registers 1,500 nurses through SPEP

As of March 17, 2023, CNO has registered over 1,500 nurses through the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership (SPEP).

Two nurses wearing masks

The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) protects the public by promoting safe nursing practice. This includes the registration of nurses, whether educated in Canada or internationally, with the knowledge, skill and judgment to practice safely in Ontario.

As of March 17, 2023, CNO has registered over 1,500 nurses through the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership (SPEP).

Launched in January 2022 in partnership with Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health, SPEP is designed to match applicants with Ontario nursing employers to help them meet evidence of practice and language proficiency requirements for nursing registration in Ontario.

“SPEP is an innovative solution to help increase nursing resources across the province while maintaining our focus on public safety,” says Silvie Crawford, CNO’s Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We are fiercely proud of this partnership and look forward to continuing this ongoing success across Ontario.”

Currently there are 2,432 applicants matched with 580 employers offering SPEP throughout the province. This includes matches to employers in northern and rural communities in a variety of practice settings.

CNO is the authoritative source of information for nursing statistics in Ontario. Visit our Applicant Statistics and CNO’s Registration Totals at a Glance for the most up-to-date statistics.

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.

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