December 19, 2023

Highlights

This month’s highlights include details on an upcoming diversity, equity and inclusion survey and a reminder to update your contact information.

Understanding your experience: New diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) census coming

In the new year, CNO will release its first workforce census. The census will provide CNO with an important snapshot of the demographic composition of registrants. Results will provide CNO with a baseline, making it possible to identify gaps and track progress over time.

Results from the census will allow CNO to measure changes and progress toward advancing more equitable, diverse and inclusive policies and defining positive working environments.

The census is voluntary, anonymous and open to all nurses registered with CNO. Participants will be able to self-identify in a variety of ways that reflect the rich diversity of nurses in Ontario.

Throughout our consultations, we have heard from equity-deserving groups about the barriers that nurses in Ontario experience. At CNO, we know members of historically marginalized groups may experience racism, discrimination or harassment in both their personal and professional lives. This survey is designed to ensure we understand better what systemic issues and challenges nurses currently face.

Brent Knowles, Director, Analytics and Planning at CNO, said, “We look forward to hearing from nurses and we’re excited for the release of the first-ever Workforce Census. It will allow us to collect anonymous data that will help CNO understand and measure the experiences and perspectives of nurses and share this information with the health system.”

The survey was developed in collaboration with members of equity-deserving groups, and in consultation with external and internal DEI experts, who specialize in collecting data in health systems.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information about this initiative.

We hope nurses will participate so CNO has a full and accurate profile of our registrants.

Are your contact details up-to-date? 

The end of the year is an excellent time to make sure your contact info, including your home address, email and phone number, is up-to-date on Maintain Your Membership (MYM).

Keeping your contact information current is an accountability for all nurses. It’s how CNO contacts you with notifications about Quality Assurance (QA) Assessment, the latest issues of The Standard and other important nursing regulatory updates. CNO no longer distributes QA Assessment notifications or The Standard via mail, so it’s necessary for your email to be accurate.

Your contact information does not appear publicly on Find A Nurse – it's for CNO use only.

You can login to MYM here with your username and password. For more information, refer to our Update Your Info page.

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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