February 27, 2025

News and Notes

Are you an RN authorized to prescribe medication? We want to hear from you!

Illustration of a CNO newspaper.

Are you an RN authorized by CNO to prescribe medication? We want hear from you!

CNO is looking for RNs who are authorized to prescribe to share their experiences. This is a unique opportunity to share your journey and insights for an article in The Standard. Your story can help others understand the real-world impact of this new practice for RNs.

RNs have the option to expand their scope of practice to prescribe specific medications and communicate diagnoses for the purpose of prescribing those medications. Currently, more than 500 RNs have chosen to complete the approved education required to become authorized to prescribe.

If you’re interested, please email us at editor@cnomail.org. If you're an employer of RNs who are authorized to prescribe, we would love to hear from you too!

“It’s been a year since RNs in Ontario could become authorized to prescribe and communicate diagnoses,” says Catriona Mill, Manager, Practice Quality. “We’re excited to share real stories that showcase the ways nurses and their employers are enhancing safe care and improving health outcomes.”

Here is an example of questions we may ask.

  • What motivated you to pursue the authorization to prescribe medications?
  • Have you experienced any challenges with this expanded scope?
  • What impact has this had on your patients, your practice, your colleagues, your practice setting and your community?
  • Are there any practice setting resources or CNO resources do you find most helpful?
  • What advice would you give to other RNs considering this expanded scope of practice?

We look forward to hearing from you!

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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