A Competency Assessment Supplement (CAS) is an option you can choose to complete if CNO has assessed your foundational nursing education, and it does not meet substantial equivalence.

You may complete the CAS in English or French.

No. Completing a CAS is an alternate to the education pathway. It gives you the opportunity to describe how your education and experiences have met the Nursing Education requirement and demonstrate your education meets Substantial Equivalence.

There is no time limit for writing and submitting your CAS to CNO. 

However, CNO encourages you to submit your CAS as soon as possible so it can determine whether you meet the nursing education requirement.

CNO will keep your application open for as long as there is evidence of progress toward meeting registration requirements. If there is no progress for two years, your application will be closed.

Please notify CNO in writing if you do not want to participate in the CAS or take the Education Pathway. You can either withdraw your application or submit it for review to the Registration Committee.

The Committee may decide

• you do not meet the nursing education requirement (which means that your application will be refused)

or

• you complete the CAS or complete the Education Pathway. 

Notify CNO in writing that you want to withdraw your application. CNO will confirm to you, through the online portal, that your application has been closed.

Review the competencies shared with you by CNO. Look back on your nursing experience and identify a situation in which you demonstrated each competency in your practice.

Here is an example of how an RPN applicant might respond to a report that identifies gaps in her conflict-resolution skills (RPN Entry-to-Practice Competencies Nos. 22, 46 and 59):

There are different types of conflict, such as conflict between nurses, nurse and client, nurse and families, and nurses and doctors. Conflict starts when there is a difference of opinion

For example, when I was working in the ICU, a nurse I was working with was always late for her shift. I was working the night shift and wanted to leave after giving my report. When she came to work her shift, she always had an excuse for why she was late. This upset me and I did not feel that she respected me as a colleague. Knowing that I was tired, it was not a good time to resolve the issue because I would have exploded.

I asked my teammate if I could meet her for coffee before the next shift and talk about something that was bothering me. She agreed. I knew that I needed to address the behaviour and not yell at the person. I knew that I had to let her know how I feel when this happens. I know that I needed to listen to her explanation (C. #22).

So, we met for coffee in a quiet place, just the two of us. I told her how I felt when I could not leave my shift on time and how I was scared to go home because I was so tired. I asked her if there was a reason for her lateness. Then I was quiet and let her talk. She told me her story about her daycare problems. Then we came up with a plan that would be good for both of us. We agreed to try it out for two weeks and come back to see if it works (C. #46). At the end of two weeks, we met again; and our plan was working out nicely, and I thought about my approach and how we were both happy with the outcome (C. #59).

That is up to you. If you can talk about one example from your past experience that includes each of the competencies you want to address (as seen above), you can do that.

You can also use a different example for each competency. 

Your CAS submission must be typed and double-spaced.

You can submit it in your online applicant portal

It can be sent to CNO by:

Mail:

College of Nurses of Ontario
101 Davenport Rd.
Toronto, ON M5R 3P1
Attention: Registration – CAS Submission

Fax:

416 928-6507
Attention: Registration – CAS Submission

Email:

enp@cnomail.org
Attention: Registration – CAS Submission

When sending your CAS by fax or email, be sure to write “Attention: Registration - CAS Submission” in the subject line, to avoid delays.

Yes, but you must give credit to the original author by identifying who wrote the content and where you found it (for instance, list the person’s name and website address). This applies to information from Internet sources, books, magazines, conference materials and research papers.

If you do not give credit to the source of information, you are committing plagiarism, which could seriously affect the status of your application.

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s words as your own without giving them proper credit. According to plagiarism.org, it happens when you:

• turn in someone else's work as your own
• copy words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• fail to put a quotation in quotation marks
• give incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• paraphrase a passage by changing words but copying the sentence structure without giving credit
• copy so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, regardless of whether you give credit

The College considers plagiarism to be a serious matter. It can have serious consequences for your registration and future career.

Make sure you write in your own words and do not paraphrase or use quotations from any other source without indicating the author and the source.

Before preparing your CAS, familiarize yourself with what plagiarizing means by referring to the following websites:

• University of Toronto: Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
• George Brown College: Avoiding Plagiarism

The College does not require any one specific format for citations in your CAS, as long as it is clear which parts of your writing are borrowed from other sources. (Search “essay citation examples” online for examples of how to do this.)

The College checks every CAS for plagiarism by submitting the CAS to an online plagiarism detection service, Turnitin.

Turnitin compares your CAS with texts from a variety of other sources. It also keeps a copy of your CASE in its database to detect plagiarism in future submissions. The College follows Turnitin’s Terms of Use agreement.

If the College finds plagiarism in your CAS, it will stop the assessment and send your application to the Registration Committee for review. There, you will be offered a chance to explain what happened.

The Registration Committee may respond with different possible outcomes. It could invite you to rewrite your CAS with proper citations. Or, the College could refuse your request for registration on the basis that you have not demonstrated you would practise nursing with decency, honesty and integrity.

If you are offered another opportunity to rewrite your CAS, it is very important to ensure there is no plagiarism.

Notify the College in writing (by mail, email or fax) that you do not want it to submit your CAS to Turnitin.

If you choose not to allow the College to submit your CAS to Turnitin:

• the College will not review your CAS and it will be unable to determine if you meet the nursing education requirement

and

• the Registration Committee will review your application