August 11, 2020

A Message for the Public

As a member of the public, what should you know about the handling of your personal health information by nurses?

Your Privacy Matters to Us

As a member of the public, what should you know about the handling of your personal health information by nurses?

Our role at the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is to set and enforce the standards of practice for nurses. This includes reinforcing for nurses the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of your health information. You have the right to expect that:

  • only nurses and other health care providers directly involved in your care have access to your personal health information
  • health care providers ask you for permission to share information outside of your immediate health care team
  • your health care information is accurate and kept up to date
  • your personal information is used only for the purpose for which it was collected, and
  • health care providers are following the rules around the handling of personal health information as outlined in legislation, such as in the Personal Health Information Protection Act ,and with best practices, such as those outlined in the Ontario Privacy Commissioner's Circle of Care: Sharing Personal Health Information for Health-Care Purposes.

CNO takes breaches of your confidential health information seriously. When we hear of such breaches by nurses — either from you directly, an employer or a news report —  we take specific steps to assess each report and correct nursing practice.   

You can read more about what we tell nurses about maintaining the confidentiality of patient information in the Confidentiality and Privacy – Personal Health Information 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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