Quality Practice - Winter 2009 Volume 8 Issue 4 Print
Renewal deadline quickly approaching!
The Dec. 31 deadline for receiving membership forms and fees for 2010 is only days away. If you haven’t renewed, do so today at www.cno.org, and take advantage of our fast and easy online renewal service. If you know of staff members who have not yet renewed, remind them of the online service. Or, if they don’t have Internet access at home, allow them some time to renew at work. Renewing online takes less than 10 minutes!
Online renewal is used heavily during the final weeks of December, making this the time when its benefits are most felt by members. By renewing online at this late date rather than mailing in a paper form, members reduce the risk of their renewal arriving at the College after the Dec. 31 deadline. This results in a late fee being charged and delays in the processing of the renewal.
College ending paper form
This is the last year members will be able to renew using the paper form. Next year, members will have to renew online.
Starting in 2010, the College is required to collect additional information from nurses. New questions will address languages in which members can provide nursing services, additional education obtained outside of nursing, hours of work, multiple employers and other topics. Adding these questions to the existing paper form would have resulted in a multi-page document that was more time-consuming for nurses to complete, and more expensive to mail and process. The College was concerned that a longer, more complicated form would have resulted in an increase in the number of incorrectly completed forms being returned to members.
The College has seen steady growth in the number of members who used online renewal since it was first offered in 2007. As of Dec. 14, approximately 72,000 nurses had renewed their memberships for 2010. Of that number, over 60 per cent went online to complete the form.
These nurses recognize, as the College has, that 24-hour-a-day online services are the way of the future.
Earlier suspension date
The suspension date for 2010 is March 11, which is one month earlier than last year’s date. Individuals who have not obtained a current and valid membership with the College by this date are legally prohibited from practising nursing.