May 01, 2024
October 2018

Make a difference for Ontarians: Get involved with the College

You can become a voice for Ontarians by getting involved with the College. Run for election to Council, or volunteer to sit on one of the College’s committees.

To serve on Council or a committee, you must be committed to client safety and understand how nurses’ actions affect it. You also need to be devoted to protecting clients’ rights. As well, you must be a good communicator and demonstrate professional judgement and integrity.

You can become a voice for Ontarians by getting involved with the College. Run for election to Council, or volunteer to sit on one of the College’s committees.

To serve on Council or a committee, you must be committed to client safety and understand how nurses’ actions affect it. You also need to be devoted to protecting clients’ rights. As well, you must be a good communicator and demonstrate professional judgment and integrity.

To understand how participation on Council and committees helps protect the public, watch this short video.

Run for Council

What does Council do?
The College’s Council is its board of directors. It is made up of nurses and members of the public. It sets the direction for regulating the nursing profession in Ontario and establishes the goals, objectives and policies of the College according to the governing legislation.

This year, we’re holding elections in the Central, Toronto, and Central Eastern districts. If you are eligible to participate in this election, check your email inbox—we have already sent you the nomination form.

What Council needs
If you’re considering running for election or nominating a colleague, review the experience, knowledge, traits and skills needed for Council. No one person is expected to have all of these competencies and attributes, but if you are considering running for Council, reflect on which of them you would bring to Council.  

What’s next?
Find the nomination form and more information about Council and our election process at our Council Elections page.

The nomination period closes on Friday, Nov. 23, 2018.

Join a committee

What do committees do?
Each year we recruit nurses to serve on our committees. These committees make important decisions that protect the public.

For example, the Quality Assurance (QA) Committee reviews Practice Assessments for the College’s QA Program, to determine if nurses demonstrate professional knowledge, skill and judgment. The Registration Committee examines applications from people who want to become nurses in Ontario, to ensure they meet the requirements.

Check www.cno.org on Nov. 12
If you’re thinking of serving on a committee, we want you to have a clear understanding of what’s involved, as well as the experience, knowledge, skills and character you need.

When the application period opens on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, we’ll update our Committee page with all the information you need to decide if serving on a committee is right for you. You’ll be able to learn about the accountabilities, time commitment, and experience, skills and knowledge required. We’ll also give you some examples of the types of decisions you might need to make when serving on a committee.

Be sure to check our Committee page on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. We’ll also announce that the application period is open on www.cno.org, and on our Facebook page. The application period closes on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018.

 

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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