September 26, 2019
January 2020

New Reporting Guide and updated Reporting form

We have published a new Reporting Guide and updated the Reporting form. The goal is to help employers, nurses and anyone who works with a nurse clearly understand what, when and how to report a concern they have about a nurse’s practice to CNO.

The guide replaces Mandatory Reporting: A process guide for employers, facility operators and nurses. We have also updated the Reporting form to make it easier to complete and submit to CNO.

CNO's mandate is to protect the public. We achieve this by partnering with those who work with nurses. Patient safety is a collective responsibility—we need you to send us a report when you believe a nurse poses a serious risk of harm to patients.

The Reporting Guide is now an easy-to-navigate online document. It includes:

  • a table that easily explains what you should report to CNO

  • a section on a nurse’s professional accountability to act in the best interest of their patients and to protect them from harm

  • a section on your legal obligations to report certain conduct and concerns

We have also updated the Reporting form based on feedback. It now includes:

  • instructions on how to complete the form

  • a second contact person section, since more than one person might have information about the concern

  • more areas to list incidents, since the person submitting the form might have multiple concerns about the nurse’s practice

  • the ability to submit the form electronically on cno.org

We will be adding additional supporting resources to the File a Report section throughout 2020. We will inform you when we launch a new resource. 

We have published a new Reporting Guide and updated the Reporting form. The goal is to help employers, nurses and anyone who works with a nurse clearly understand what, when and how to report a concern they have about a nurse’s practice to CNO.

The guide replaces Mandatory Reporting: A process guide for employers, facility operators and nurses. We have also updated the Reporting form to make it easier to complete and submit to CNO.

CNO’s mandate is to protect the public. We achieve this by partnering with those who work with nurses. Patient safety is a collective responsibility—we need you to send us a report when you believe a nurse poses a serious risk of harm to patients.

The Reporting Guide is now an easy-to-navigate online document. It includes:

  • a table that easily explains what you should report to CNO

  • a section on a nurse’s professional accountability to act in the best interest of their patients and to protect them from harm

  • a section on your legal obligations to report certain conduct and concerns

We have also updated the Reporting form based on feedback. It now includes:

  • instructions on how to complete the form

  • a second contact person section, since more than one person might have information about the concern

  • more areas to list incidents, since the person submitting the form might have multiple concerns about the nurse’s practice

  • the ability to submit the form electronically on cno.org

We will be adding additional supporting resources to the File a Report section throughout 2020. We will inform you when we launch a new resource. 

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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