June 20, 2023
June 2023

CNO releases Annual Report

CNO’s 2022 Annual Report highlights accomplishments that support our future success.

Report highlights 2022 successes, looks ahead to further progress

CNO’s 2022 Annual Report highlights accomplishments that support our future success.

With the theme of “Looking Ahead,” the report illustrates CNO’s work in 2022 to protect the public, by promoting safe nursing practice. It also shows how we are building on those foundations in 2023 and beyond, to strengthen patient safety with agility, sustainability and innovation.

“I’m proud of the work we did in 2022 to help meet health care system needs at such a challenging time,” said Silvie Crawford, Executive Director and CEO.

“We have lots of accomplishments to build on and I’m excited for what it means for our future and for patient safety.”

Silvie Crawford, RN, BHScN, LLM - Health Law, Executive Director & CEO

Silvie Crawford, RN, BHScN, LLM - Executive Director & CEO

Here are some accomplishments highlighted in the 2022 Annual Report:

  • registering a record number of new nurses, with 12,385 new registrants

  • launching the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership, which more than 1,000 nurses joined in 2022

  • setting new records for social media engagement, which grew by 43%

  • receiving feedback from 723 nurses and 18 organizations to modernize the Code of Conduct

  • answering 59,985 phone calls and 36,504 emails in our Call Centre

  • publishing our first Staff Demographic and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) survey, introducing a land acknowledgement for staff use, and implementing a four-year DEI plan

  • ongoing work to transform Quality Assurance

  • collaborating with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in the U.S. on Nursys, a secure Canadian-based repository for sharing nursing information across jurisdictions

  • working closely with the government on the Minister of Health’s directive and to improve the applicant experience

At its June meeting, Council reviewed the Annual Report and sent it to the Ministry of Health.

For the first time, CNO published its annual report in English and French simultaneously. In past years, CNO released the French-language Annual Report after the English version. This initiative is part of CNO’s commitment to be accountable and transparent in both official languages and better serve Ontarians.

You can read the Annual Report on our website.

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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