A year-end message from CNO CEO, Silvie Crawford

As we approach the end of 2023, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your incredible work and dedication to the nursing profession and patient safety. I value our partnership as we work together to uphold the standards of the profession and ensure safe care for the people of Ontario.  

I know there is a common misconception that CNO's main function as a regulator is to penalize nurses who practice unsafely. Our purpose is to protect the public by promoting safe nursing practice, which includes responding to concerns about nursing practice and protecting the public from harm. However, it also includes supporting you in your daily practice and continuous improvement throughout your careers.   

In 2023, CNO revised the Code of Conduct (Code) to keep pace with the dynamic nature of the nursing profession. The Code now includes a new principle focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, outlining nurses' accountabilities in providing inclusive and culturally safe care. We also developed a new Scope of Practice standard to reflect the evolving health care environment and changing needs of patients. We understand the dynamic health care environment and are in the process of modernizing other practice standards, as well, to make them more relevant, applicable and accessible to nurses in all practice settings.

CNO regularly collaborates with the Ministry of Health on nurses' expanding accountabilities to enable you to provide more comprehensive and timely care to the public. We worked together to finalize the regulations for RN prescribing, to implement various changes to NP practice and to authorize RPNs to initiate certain client-care procedures independently.

In addition to supporting daily practice, we also are dedicated to contributing positively to the health care system and workforce challenges in Ontario and registering more nurses who meet the registration requirements for safe practice as quickly as we can. In 2023, we made regulatory and policy changes to address key challenges associated with the registration processes for internationally educated nurse applicants and to expedite the registration of applicants from other Canadian jurisdictions. The Supervised Practice Experience Partnership, since its inception in 2022, has matched more than 4,000 applicants with employers and enabled nearly 2,700 nurses to register and join the nursing workforce, since its inception. 

These achievements are the result of our collaboration with our system partners, such as CNO's Council – made up of nurses like you and members of the public, employers, nursing associations, educators, other health profession regulators and more. Most of all, they are the result of our partnership with you, the champions of patient safety. We know you work hard every day to provide the best in safe nursing care and it inspires us to do the same. Just as you reflect on a daily basis with Quality Assurance, we always look at ways we can improve, too.

This reflection further inspires me when looking ahead to 2024. We want to build on our momentum and deliver more successes. We recognize there is always more to do. I am excited to continue that progress and to keep working with all of you to promote public safety. 

I also hope you have the opportunity to reflect in your own way this holiday season: to celebrate your successes, to connect with your loved ones and to welcome the new year.

Thank you and Season's Greetings, 

Silvie Crawford, RN, BHScN, LLM - Health Law 
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer CEO