September 12, 2023
September 2023

Opportunities to contribute to public safety available soon

 

You can soon apply to promote safe nursing practice by joining a committee or Council. 

 

You can soon apply to promote safe nursing practice by joining a committee or Council.

Join a CNO committee or Council. It’s the best way you can protect the public by promoting safe nursing practice in Ontario!

Applications for committee vacancies and the Council election process will open in the coming weeks.

Nurses from all practice areas are encouraged to apply for committee roles. Currently, there are vacancies on the Discipline Committee and on the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee. We will notify you in The Standard and on social media platforms when committee applications are available.

Council roles will be available for select geographic regions: Southwestern District (two RNs or NPs, one RPN), Central Western District (two RNs or NPs, one RPN), and Central/Toronto District (one RPN). All eligible nurses will receive an email notifying them that they can run for Council. CNO Council elections rotate geographically so different areas are available each year.

It’s a commitment to serve on committees or Council, but nurses also find that the opportunity to apply their professional knowledge, skill and judgment in these areas makes a rewarding contribution to safe nursing practice across Ontario.

What's Involved

CNO anticipates that most of our committee and Council meetings will be held virtually for the foreseen future; in the event that they take place at our offices in Toronto, we cover the expenses involved.

The amount of time needed to devote to each committee varies, and you can find more details on the committee page on our website.

Council meets quarterly, and there are occasional special meetings too. Council sets the direction for the regulation of the nursing profession in Ontario, and establishes the goals, objectives and CNO’s policies according to the governing legislation. You can learn more about it on our Council page.

CNO will onboard you thoroughly to your new role, if you are appointed to a committee or are elected to Council. Serving in this capacity can be an excellent way to gain governance and leadership experience.

While the details of different committees can vary, they all serve the public interest and provide an opportunity to learn about and contribute to safe nursing practice in Ontario.

The process to be elected to Council or appointed to a committee begins in Fall 2023. Members are then elected or appointed in the first quarter of 2024 and take office in June 2024. 

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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