July 23, 2024

Highlights

CNO releases 2023 Annual Report, check us out at NPAO Conference.

CNO’s 2023 Annual Report is now available and highlights our accomplishments and the foundation for future success.

With the theme of “Building the Future,” the report builds on CNO’s 60th anniversary of regulatory excellence and looks toward how we will continue to protect the public by promoting safe nursing practice.

“As a nurse, it is my privilege to maintain and strengthen this mandate and share that work with you in our 2023 Annual Report,” said Silvie Crawford, RN, Registrar/Executive Director and CEO.

“Patient safety requires ongoing vigilance, dedication and progress, and I am proud to work toward this purpose every day,” she added.

The report highlighted that patient safety is a collective responsibility and, to that end, CNO continued to collaborate with health care system partners in 2023.

Highlights in the annual report:

  • 188,461 total nurses in the Ontario health care system
  • improving the applicant experience to support interprovincial mobility, introducing a flexible Jurisprudence Exam schedule and continued Supervised Practice Experience Program success
  • in partnership with the Ministry of Health, expanded the scope of practice for RNs and RPNs

  •  enhanced the Quality Assurance assessment program by launching a new online platform for a more streamlined assessment process

“I am excited to share our accomplishments from our 60th year in this report. Also, I will continue my commitment to collaborating with the public, nurses, the Ministry of Health and other health system partners to build on this success,” said Crawford.

The 2023 Annual Report was reviewed by Council at its June meeting and sent to the Ministry of Health.

Say hi to CNO at the NPAO conference

CNO will be at the annual Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario conference, which takes place from Wednesday, Sept. 25 to Friday, Sept. 27 in Toronto.

The conference will feature an awards celebration, plenary sessions, keynote speeches, learning and networking opportunities and booths from various health care partners.

CNO will be at the event on Thursday, Sept. 26 and Friday Sept. 27 with a booth to provide information and connect with attendees.

Save the date for the next Council meeting

CNO’s Council will meet on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

CNO provides live stream feeds through YouTube, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where you can see the latest deliberations.

You can also see what’s on the agenda—or review past agendas and documents—on the dedicated Council webpage.

For more Council information, you can follow CNO’s social media feeds on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

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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