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Transparency: Building an open and accessible College
As part of our public protection mandate, the College of Nurses of Ontario is committed to enhancing transparency. What is meant by this?
The College's role is to support the delivery of safe and ethical nursing care to the people of Ontario. Being transparent – or clear, open and forthright – about our processes and decision-making is one way we do this. Transparency also means ensuring that our processes and information related to the nursing profession in Ontario can be accessed easily by applicants, the public and nurses.
Changes to the Register
In December 2015, more information about Ontario’s nurses became available on Find a Nurse, the College’s register of its members. This was in response to calls from the public, the media and government stakeholders for access to more information about the province's health care professionals, especially when it comes to conduct and practice issues. The College of Nurses, along with several other health care regulators, including the Ontario College of Pharmacists and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, looked at ways to make more information about health care providers available to the public.
Together with regulatory colleagues on the Advisory Group for Regulatory Excellence (AGRE), the College developed transparency principles to help shape recommendations for what additional information about Ontario's nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other health care providers was appropriate to make public.
These Q&As provide background information on these changes.
College responds to the Ministry of Health
In November 2014, the College of Nurses of Ontario responded to a letter from the Ontario Minister of Health, which contains the government's request that regulators make more information publicly available.
In its response, the College outlined initiatives that are currently underway to enhance transparency.
