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Publications & Resources > The Standard > September 2004   

  Last modified August 31, 2004  

Meet Your Council

As the governing body of the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO), Council establishes the strategic direction for nursing self-regulation and sets regulatory policy.

Council is made up of a diverse group of people. The 14 RNs and seven RPNs are elected by their peers and reflect every nurse’s commitment to quality care. The public members are appointed by the provincial government. “Members of the profession bring knowledge, skill and judgment from their nursing practice,” says Sandra Ireland, RN, Council President. “Public members bring experience from a variety of private and public backgrounds.” All decisions are based on a common guiding principle: does this decision serve to protect the public interest?

Council meets four times a year to shape the practice and the profession of nursing. For example, this past year Council approved the new Infection Prevention and Control practice standard, established a process to ensure that practical nursing programs will meet College standards, proposed changes to the entry-to-practice regulations to enhance fairness and labour mobility, and called on the provincial government to hold a public review of the circumstances surrounding the second outbreak of SARS.

Every decision made by Council balances the public interest with an understanding of the profession and the setting in which nursing is practised.

Individual RNs and RPNs are keystones of self-regulation. Each nurse, by practising in accordance with the College’s standards and participating in Reflective Practice, ensures that the public receives safe, effective and ethical nursing care. “Council ensures that the public is protected by providing leadership to the nursing profession in self-regulation,” explains Sandra.

In 2001, when the strategic plan was developed, Council specifically identified the importance of the individual nurse in self-regulation and included as one of the College’s strategic objectives: Building confidence in self-regulation. As Sandra says, “if we are successful in building confidence in self-regulation, we will see nurses more aware of, and involved in, the self-regulation of their profession.”

Being a member of Council is a positive and important way for nurses to be involved in self-regulation. “As Council members, seeing our individual expertise influence the practice of more than 140,000 nurses in Ontario and the care received by the clients and families we serve is an incredibly rewarding feeling,” says Sandra.

For more information on Council, visit the CNO website at www.cno.org.

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