A. The course is fully accredited by the University of Bedfordshire and provides 45 CATS points at level 3. Of the 700 nurses who have taken the course over many years no- one has had any legal difficulty with the qualification. Dr Fay Wilson, the BMA GPC member, said that this is “industry gold standard” course. Many universities have bought our distance learning materials to use within their courses. The Minor Illness Manual is the main text used by most practitioners, including nurse practitioners. We have asked the opinion of nurses who wanted to see urgent primary care cases and had already done a nurse practitioners’ university course. Their comments were that although their nurse practitioners’ course was good academic stuff, they found it lacked practical impact. Most Universities cannot provide lecturers who are mainly working in the field, seeing patients.

A. If you feel you could complete accreditation at Level 3, then by all means attend the course. You may decide you do not need to use the points towards a degree, but just need the accreditation. The 'Accreditation Guidelines' will give you a better idea of what will be expected.

A. Your mentor must either be a GP or alternatively a nurse who has been personally assessed and accredited by the NMIC team. (This accreditation carries a cost; please email us for details). There is no problem with your mentor delegating some of the teaching and clinical supervision to a nurse who is skilled both in managing minor illness and in teaching. The mentor who has signed the Learning Contract takes responsibility for ensuring that this nurse is adequately qualified for the task, and the mentor must personally sign off your Manual of Clinical Competencies.

A. No. University assignments cannot be assessed in advance of marking. It must be submitted as a final answer.

A. Yes, but we must agree on a deferred date and you must submit this letter of agreement with your assignment.

A. Because of your particular circumstances, we will allow you to submit two Adult studies on different topics. You must submit this letter of agreement to the University with your assignment.

A. No, and it sounds as though the course is not appropriate to your current role. The case study assignments must focus on acute presentations of symptoms considered by either the patient or the clinician to be caused by a minor illness.

A. No, the topic for your assignment must relate to the management of minor illness. You could, for example, do an assignment on how the Walk-In Centre can manage to continue to provide a first contact service with the likely reduction in funding. Whatever your topic it is necessary that you ensure a link between a management tool and a process, and that you include a review following such a change. The key is to link a management tool with a decision. For example:

• Low funding is a threat to continued service
• SWOT analysis: strength of broad skills of staff, opportunity to make casemix changes
• Decision to change the type of patient problem seen by the nurses
• Changes in hours or staff numbers therefore possible
• Decision to do this
• Gantt Chart to plan the change
• Review

A. It is a requirement of the University of Bedfordshire that the Minor Illness course must be completed within one year.