October 07, 2025
October 2025

News and Notes

Council approves amendments to the Registered Nurse (RN) Prescribing standard, and don’t forget to check your email for QA Assessment.

Illustration of a CNO newspaper.

CNO Updates Its RN Prescribing Standard

At its September 2025 meeting, the College of Nurses of Ontario’s (CNO) Council approved amendments to the Registered Nurse (RN) Prescribing standard. These changes align the document with policy updates that Council approved at its June meeting, making it possible for RN prescribing to be taught in Ontario baccalaureate nursing programs. 

Previously, RN prescribing could be taught only as part of continuing education programs for practicing nurses. Now baccalaureate programs have the option to include it in their curriculum. This update does not change any professional accountabilities of RNs authorized to prescribe.

While not all baccalaureate programs offer RN prescribing, this change provides flexibility to schools wanting to do so. It reflects CNO’s ongoing commitment to strengthening patient access to care and supporting system evolution and innovation.

Graduates of baccalaureate nursing programs that include RN prescribing will be authorized to prescribe once they satisfy all requirements for registration in the General Class. Their Find a Nurse profile will include the notation to indicating prescribing authority.

CNO reviews and approves RN prescribing education programs to ensure nurses are well-prepared to provide safe, effective and competent care to the public. To see the full list of CNO-approved Ontario baccalaureate nursing education programs, including which offer RN prescribing as part of their curriculum, visit the Baccalaureate Nursing (RN) Programs page on CNO’s website.

To learn more about RN prescribing, please see CNO’s RN Prescribing Practice page and the RN Prescribing Drug List.  

Don’t forget to check your email for QA Assessment 

On September 29, CNO notified nurses who were selected to participate in the upcoming Quality Assurance (QA) Assessment. Be sure to check your spam and junk folders for any missed emails from CNO. Also, remember to login to Maintain Your Membership to ensure your email is up-to-date.  

Completing QA Assessment is a professional accountability for all nurses in Ontario. If you are selected to participate, we encourage you to embrace this opportunity to learn, improve and enhance patient care. We also provide support along the way.  

While CNO selects a group of nurses for QA Assessment, all nurses should be reflecting on their daily nursing practice and learning needs through QA Every Day.  

For more information about CNO’s QA Program, please visit our website.  

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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