April 03, 2018
October 2018

Education assessment program focuses on transparency

After years of research and consultation, we’re ready to roll out our new method of assessing all entry-level nursing education programs in Ontario.

After years of research and consultation, we’re ready to roll out our new method of assessing all entry-level nursing education programs in Ontario. The new Nursing Education Program Approval process provides an objective foundation for consistently and regularly approving the province’s nursing programs. It also helps ensure our program approval and decision-making processes are clear, open and transparent.  

The new process involves an annual review of program outcomes such as nursing registration exam results as well as a comprehensive review every seven years of a program’s structure, curriculum and outcomes. To receive approval status, nursing programs must meet or exceed the requirements.

When we approve a program, it means the program’s graduates are prepared to practise nursing safely. We’ve already begun to evaluate Nurse Practitioner (NP) programs using our new process. Next, we’ll use the new process to evaluate Baccalaureate Nursing (Registered Nurse) programs in 2019, and Practical Nursing (PN) programs in 2020.

Although we’ve launched the new process, our work hasn’t ended. Over the next two years, we plan to add feedback from graduates about their readiness to practise nursing safely to the outcomes we’ll monitor. We will also add preceptor feedback about students’ readiness to practise based on their final integrated practicum.

What sets our program apart is the amount of evidence and consultation we put into it. In 2014, we started work by consulting with front-line nurses, nursing educators and leaders, clinical instructors, students and other regulators. We reviewed over five years of data, conducted 74 surveys and consulted with 10 other jurisdictions.

You can learn more about nursing education program approval at www.cno.org/programapproval.

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