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March 30, 2026

Modernizing the public register to serve you better

CNO’s public register gets a refresh 

An illustration of a desktop monitor displaying nurse profiles with a magnifying glass.

CNO’s public register gets a refresh 

CNO’s online public register, Find a Nurse, provides members of the public, nurses, nurses’ employers and others in the health care system with important regulatory details about Ontario nurses. To ensure this information is accessible and transparent, and to ensure our web services are up to date, we’ve modernized Find a Nurse. 

The public register includes information such as whether a nurse is an RN, RPN or NP, whether they are authorized to practice in Ontario, where they work, and their registration history and status (for example, their registration is restricted, suspended, revoked or expired). For RNs, the public register also says if they are authorized to prescribe. 

Find a Nurse also includes information about public investigation outcomes, whether a nurse’s registration is temporarily restricted or suspended while an investigation or discipline process is occurring, any disciplinary outcomes and other legal matters. We share this information in accordance with Ontario law, so that members of the public, employers and others can make informed decisions about their care teams.  

We’ve updated how this information is organized, so that moving through the site is intuitive, even if you’ve never used it before. We also improved the site’s navigation and search functionality so you can quickly and easily find information. 

Some of the changes we made were in response to feedback from our partners in the health system, including nurses, the Ontario Nurses’ Association and regulatory experts. For example, we heard that the difference between public remedial investigation outcomes of the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (for example, a caution), which are not disciplinary, and outcomes of the Discipline Committee, which are disciplinary, was confusing. We added clearer language and a glossary of definitions for our regulatory and legal terms, so that their meanings are easy to understand. 

Our goal was to improve the transparency and accessibility of information on our public register. We hope you’ll find using the public register easier to navigate and more user-friendly. If you have any questions or feedback about the changes, we’d love to hear 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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