Practice Expectation Spotlight: Registration Renewal

To have the authority to engage in RN practice and use the protected title “Registered Nurse/(RN)” or “Registered Nurse, Nurse Practitioner/(RN-NP)”, an individual must hold a valid and current certificate of practice with the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba (College).

A certificate of practice is valid for a period of one year at a time: January 1 to December 31.

This means that in order to keep working year-to-year with no interruption, a registrant must renew their certificate of practice annually.

The College Bylaws stipulate the renewal period and the need to apply for reinstatement if a registrant who wanted to renew their certificate of practice but missed the established deadline:

Bylaw XII:

1. In order to be eligible to renew a certificate of practice, a member must:
   1. Annually submit a complete application between October 1 and December 1, and
   2. Have paid all outstanding money owed to the College
2. Members who have not met all the requirements for renewal in the time period set out in (1) above will be required to apply for reinstatement.

To ensure that members who wish to continue to practice are aware of the need to renew and to avoid having to apply for reinstatement the following year, the College communicates with members several times via email throughout the renewal period. Email communication is the College’s primary form of official communication with registrants and all registrants are sent the official renewal launch message on October 1. Registrants continue to receive the renewal reminders until they have been renewed or advise the College that they are not renewing.  The College also communicates about registration renewal on the College website and other electronic communication such as the College eNews, social media pages, and Employer Bulletins.

In addition to the renewal communication, registrants required to provide additional information in order to be eligible for renewal (such as background checks, verified practice hours or additional continuing competency program/CCP information) will have received additional communication, and much earlier in the year, about the added requirement. The Renewal Checklist available via the CRNM Profile on the College website provides a personalized list of an individual registrant’s requirements for renewal.

To remain aware of all registration requirements and obligations, registrants must keep their contact information up to date, as stipulated in the College Bylaws:

Bylaw XI:

1. Within 30 days of a change, each member shall report to the College:
   1. Any change of name;
   2. Any change of their address, telephone number, facsimile number, or electronic mail address

During the renewal period, several renewal support options were available (including Renewal FAQs on the website, a dedicated email, telephone, and chat) and it was our pleasure to connect with registrants who utilized these services.

Registrants were advised of the two ways that they would know that they had been renewed: 1. Receive the email message confirming that their renewal application had been approved, and 2. Access Nurse Check, the online registration verification system to confirm 2023 registration.

Renewal Data:

13, 776 registrants were registered as of December 31^st and were eligible to apply for renewal.

• 1070 individuals were notified on April 1, 2022, of the need to provide background check information (criminal records check and child and adult abuse registry checks) in order to be eligible for renewal for 2023.
• 200 individuals were notified in July 2022, of the need to provide CCP review information in order to be eligible for renewal for 2023
• 156 individuals were notified on July 5, 2022, of the need to obtain verification of their self-reported practice hours in the past 5 years.

13, 104 registrants applied for 2023 renewal and 99.3% were renewed.

In the end, 94.4% of all 2022 registrants renewed their certificates of practice for 2023.

For those who applied for renewal but were not approved, these were the most common reasons:

1. Applying too late. The College encouraged registrants to apply for renewal as early as possible. However, several registrants applied very late in the renewal period (some even November 25th and later) leaving themselves very little time to address any issues that come up for themselves (computer or credit card issues) or to fulfill additional regulatory requirements that came as a result of information provided on their application form*.
2. Background checks requirement not met. Despite select registrants being advised on April 1 that they were selected to provide background check information and that these documents can take up to 6 weeks to obtain, registrants waited to take steps to fulfill this requirement and were not able to get the documents to the College before the renewal deadline. In some cases, individuals did not provide proper and complete name information (former names and aliases) on the criminal record check or abuse registry application forms which needed to be corrected with the policy agency or registry office and caused further delays. The College provided a one-time extension to December 8 for registrants to submit their background checks. Even this extension was not enough lead time for registrants who applied for their background checks in mid-November.

*Special Note on Self-Disclosures:

Registrants have an obligation to self-disclose on the renewal application as set out by the College’s Practice Direction: Self-Disclosure. Registrants were advised at the launch of renewal that the College strongly recommended that any registrant making a disclosure at renewal should complete their renewal application before November 15, 2022, as failure to do so could result in the application not being approved in time for the 2023 renewal deadline. Some registrants did not heed the advice and waited too long to submit their renewal application with the disclosure. This meant they were not able to arrange for the College to receive the required disclosure-related information in order to complete their application prior to December 1.