August 29, 2019
February 2020

Have a question? We’re here to help!

Did you know Practice Support can help identify the appropriate practice standards and guidelines to guide your decision-making and help you understand your accountabilities?

During your career as a nurse, you may need to consult on a practice situation or your scope of practice. Did you know Practice Support can help identify the appropriate practice standards and guidelines to guide your decision-making and help you understand your accountabilities?

How we can help you:

We can:

  • direct you to the practice standards and guidelines that apply to your practice issue

  • provide you with FAQs and other resources that explain how certain standards are applied

  • help guide your decision-making

  • help you understand your accountabilities

For example, if you have a question about whether an RN or RPN can administer Botox, we would email you a link to the Decisions About Procedures and Authority practice document and our FAQ on administering Botox. Or, if your question is about the difference between a direct order and a directive, we would send you a link to the Authorizing Mechanisms practice document so you can learn the differences between the two and how they would be used.

Our resources, your decision:

We know you may be hoping that we can answer your question with a simple yes or no, but we can’t. Nursing practice is complex, and it’s up to you to consider your legislative scope, practice setting and reflect on your own knowledge, skill and judgment before you make any practice-related decision. Only you can determine whether you have the knowledge, skill and judgment to proceed.

What we can do is make sure you have the tools you need to make the best possible decision. If you have a question, visit our Standards and Learning page to see all our educational resources, including answers to your most frequently asked questions, decision tools, webcasts and case scenarios.

If you don’t see an answer to your question, you can consult with an Advance Practice Consultant on our Practice Support team. Contact us by completing our Practice Support form. We’ll do our best to respond to you within three business days.

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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