August 29, 2019
October-November 2019

When nurses lead, patients are safer

All nurses, regardless of role or title, are leaders. Nurses lead every single day in all practice settings. Nurses lead when they advocate for patients and when they identify risks to patient safety. Nurses also lead when...

All nurses, regardless of role or title, are leaders. Nurses lead every single day in all practice settings.

Nurses lead when they:

  • Advocate for patients. From advocating for a patient’s specific care goals to speaking up for vulnerable patients who may be in danger, nurses look out for their patients. 

  • Identify risks to patient safety. Nurses put patients first, even when it’s challenging to do so.

  • Advocate for quality practice settings. Nurses work as a team to create policy changes when necessary to support safe patient care.

  • Share their knowledge. Nurses collaborate with other care providers, including students and those who are new to the profession or practice setting.

Leadership is essential for patient safety. In fact, when reviewing cases where patients were exposed to risk, CNO has noticed a pattern: a patient could have received safer care if the nurse providing their care had demonstrated leadership.

Reflect on a time you acted like a leader in your practice setting. Maybe you spoke up for a vulnerable patient because you noticed another nurse had not maintained appropriate boundaries with the patient. Maybe you pulled a colleague aside for a chat because you were concerned about their ability to provide safe patient care. Or maybe you provided support to a new member of the health care team by sharing your knowledge. These are all examples of leadership in action.

To enhance your ability to provide safe, patient-centred care, reflect on your leadership abilities:

  • How does my practice align with the leadership expectations outlined in the standards?

  • What does nursing leadership mean to me?

  • How am I developing as a leader?

  • How can I maximize my leadership potential?

  • What are the opportunities for leadership in my practice setting?

  • What sources of feedback can I seek to inform my nursing practice?

To learn more about your accountabilities to lead, read the Code of Conduct and the Professional Standards, Revised 2002 practice standard.

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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