Registered Nurses in Ontario

Preparation, Professional Regulation, Accountability, and Interdisciplinary Practice

Since 2005, all Registered Nurses (RN's) in Ontario must earn a baccalaureate degree from an accredited 4-year University Program. In Ontario, Registered Nurses are licensed to practice by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO). The CNO is the governing body for all Registered Nurses (RNs), Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs) in Ontario.

Nursing is a self-regulated profession which means that nurses regulate themselves as individual practitioners (through reflective practice and mandated quality assurance activities) and the profession itself is regulated through the College. The CNO provides Practice Standards that outline the professional expectations for nurses, inform nurses of their accountabilities, and serve to ensure public protection.

The Nursing Act, 1991 and the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 also determine how the nursing profession is regulated in Ontario.

The CNO requires its members to hold Professional Liability Protection Insurance, which is achieved through membership with The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO). The RNAO is the professional association representing registered nurses (RN), nurse practitioners (NP) and nursing students in Ontario. The RNAO provides its members with both professional liability protection insurance, and cyber liability protection.

Bored as a Nurse? NEVER!

Nursing is an incredibly multifaceted profession. Nurses in Ontario work in a variety if settings. Due to this diversity, interactions with other professions are role specific, but can include any of the interdisciplinary professions listed in the table below – as well as many others!

The nature of inter-professional interactions is equally variable but would at a high level include the coordination and delivery of patient care and social services, health policy development, population health planning, health promotion, advocacy, lobbying, recruitment and retention, teaching, and research.

If you've had any sort of contact with healthcare in Ontario - or Canada - chances are - you've been cared for by a Registered Nurse!