Featured
January 16, 2026

Making our website better for you

Improvements to cno.org

An illustration of miniature-sized people moving elements of a webpage around

Having a website that is easy for you to use, with up-to-date and relevant info and intuitive navigation is a priority for us.

That’s why, over the past few months, we’ve been reviewing the pages and making some changes. We are going through the content to ensure it’s clear, consistent, accurate and as streamlined as possible. This work is ongoing and we’ll keep you updated as we go. In the meantime, here are some highlights you might notice right now on this site. 

New guides about the Temporary Class

We’ve revamped our Temporary Class registration guide so that it’s easier to understand and navigate, and so that it contains all the latest information about how to register in this class. 

If you’re an RN or RPN applicant working toward completing registration requirements for the General Class, check out the new guide to see if you’re eligible for registration in the Temporary Class. 

Expanding our accessibility policy

Making cno.org more accessible so that we can serve everyone equitably is a priority for us. To support this, we have updated and expanded our Accessibility Policy to reflect our commitment to accessibility for all — a vision that goes beyond compliance and focuses on equitable access. For example, our policy now includes training CNO staff members on how to communicate with people with various needs and barriers.

Finding past issues of The Standard 

Looking for an old issue of The Standard? We’ve got them all! Issues going back to up to one year ago can still be found on our site, and for anything older than one year, just ask, and we’ll be happy to find what you need in our archive. Moving old issues into the archive helps make our new, up-to-date content easy to find. 

Looking for information about CNO?

Got a question about how we work? Our Annual Report, Strategic Plan and by-laws are now all together on our About CNO page, to make them easier to find. 

More changes are coming in 2026! We’re busy redesigning all our registration guides and information about examinations so that the content on our pages is easier to understand and navigate. Stay tuned! 

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.

Related links