British Columbia · BC College of Nurses and Midwives
How to Respond to a BCCNM Complaint
Most complaints about nurses and midwives do not begin with a patient. They begin at work — with an employer report, an incident review, or a colleague discharging a duty to report. And most of them do not end in a hearing: they end in a negotiated agreement. Understanding both of those facts changes what you should do in the first week.
One college, five designations, one new statute
The BC College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) regulates five distinct groups: registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and registered midwives. It is the product of two amalgamations — three nursing colleges merged in 2018, and the College of Midwives joined in 2020.
On 1 April 2026 the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA) came into force, repealing the Health Professions Act that had governed nursing and midwifery since the 1990s. Anything you read about a BCCNM complaint that was written before this spring may describe a process that no longer exists.
Three things a nurse or midwife needs to know immediately:
- You are a licensee now, not a registrant, and what is at stake is your practice authority.
- BCCNM still receives and investigates complaints — but it no longer decides discipline. Serious matters leave the College for an independent tribunal.
- The statutory right of appeal to the courts has been abolished.
Most complaints about nurses do not come from patients
This is where nursing and midwifery diverge sharply from medicine. A nurse’s regulatory risk arrives disproportionately through the workplace.
Employers report. Colleagues report — and are required to: licensees have a positive duty to report a peer where they suspect sexual misconduct, sexual abuse or discrimination, and the HPOA widened that duty further. The Investigation Committee can also open an investigation with no complaint at all under section 124.
The nursing-specific hazard: scope, orders and restricted activities
BCCNM sets standards, limits and conditions for each class of licensee. Certain activities are restricted activities — not forbidden, but permitted only to particular classes, and some only on a valid order.
An order is only valid if it comes from a professional authorised to give that order to your class of licensee, and if it is client-specific and documented. Acting on a verbal recommendation that was never written down, or on an order from a profession not listed for your class, is a live regulatory risk — and one that is easy to walk into on a busy unit under pressure from a colleague more senior than you.
Scope-of-practice matters are among the most common and most avoidable sources of nursing complaints. “I was told to” is not a defence.
Your first week
- Contact CNPS (or your provider) and your union before you write anything. Not after you draft a reply. Before.
- Diarise every deadline in the letter and ask for an extension early if you need one.
- Preserve the record exactly as it stands. Never add a late entry to a chart after a complaint arrives without clearly dating it as a late entry. Retrospective amendment turns a question about care into a question about honesty.
- Do not discuss the matter with colleagues who may be witnesses, and do not contact the complainant.
Cooperation is now a statutory duty
The HPOA sets out express duties for licensees, including compliance, fitness to practise, ethical conduct and cooperation with investigations. Under the old Act these largely lived in bylaws and standards. They are now in the statute, and breaching them is independently actionable.
Take advice, then cooperate. Those are not alternatives.
Most complaints end in a negotiated agreement
Here is the single most useful thing to know about the BCCNM process, and the thing that should shape how you respond from day one.
The majority of BCCNM complaints are resolved through consensual complaint resolution — a negotiated, formal legal agreement between the licensee and the College, setting out the steps the licensee agrees to take to address what the investigation identified.
That is not a hearing. It is a negotiation. And what you bring to it — insight, completed remediation, evidence that the risk is already reduced — is what determines its terms. Consent agreements are published.
Key takeaways
- BCCNM regulates five designations: RNs, NPs, LPNs, RPNs and registered midwives.
- The HPOA came into force on 1 April 2026. You are a “licensee” with a “practice authority”; BCCNM still investigates but no longer decides discipline; and the right of appeal to the courts has been abolished.
- Nursing risk arrives disproportionately through the workplace — employer reports, the duty to report peers, and section 124 investigations opened with no complaint at all.
- Involve BOTH your liability protection provider (for many nurses, CNPS) AND your union. An employer investigation and a College investigation are different proceedings.
- Scope of practice, restricted activities and invalid orders are the classic nursing complaint. “I was told to” is not a defence.
- Most BCCNM complaints are resolved by consensual complaint resolution — a negotiated consent agreement. What you bring to that negotiation decides its terms.
Related courses
Practical, self-paced CPD courses that map onto the issues in this guide. These are educational courses. They are not accredited by BCCNM and are not a substitute for legal advice.
How to respond to a College complaint calmly, constructively and on the record.
View course →Scope of practice, restricted activities and clinical competence — the classic nursing complaint.
View course →Documentation standards, and why a late entry must never look like a rewrite.
View course →Core ethical standards for nurses and midwives.
View course →Continue reading: British Columbia nurses & midwives
What happens during a BCCNM investigation? Remediation and reflection for British Columbia nurses and midwivesFrequently asked questions
Has the BCCNM complaints process changed?
Should I call my union or CNPS first?
My employer reported me. Is that different from a patient complaint?
A doctor told me to do it. Does that protect me?
Do I have to cooperate with a BCCNM investigation?
What is consensual complaint resolution?
This article is general information for nurses and midwives licensed by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives and does not constitute legal advice. The Health Professions and Occupations Act came into force on 1 April 2026 and the regime described here is new; bylaws, processes and practice are still settling, and every case turns on its own facts. If you are the subject of a complaint or investigation, contact your professional liability protection provider — for many nurses this is the Canadian Nurses Protective Society (CNPS) — together with your union and a lawyer experienced in professional regulation, before you respond. Last updated July 14, 2026.