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Sorry everyone, I was out at an NP meeting. Currently NPs cannot sign Med3 or Med 5. The RCN NPA committee are on the case and trying to get this sorted. It's a complete nonsense that we can assess, examine, diagnose, investigate (well some can order X rays) and treat and cannot sign a certificate. Personally I say to the patient that they can sign themselves off for a week, if still unfit for work they need to come and see a GP (for the cert), not because I am incapable of continuing with the treatment. I wont get a GP to sign a cert without seeing the patient - why put my colleagues in a position of risk. Once there is more news about NPs being able to sign certs I will feed back to you. Only taken fifteen plus years to move these things forwards. Good thing I am a patient woman! We are slowly chipping away. We now have prescribing powers, we can order investigations and are working on X Ray departments, we can refer to most departments but still get some referrals bounced because we are nurses. We are still waiting for our qualifications to be recorded by our Nursing&Midwifery Council who are all set, but the Privy Council are sitting on it waiting for some other information. Been sitting on it for over a year! We have been writing to MPs about this. Where is the protection of the public and our GP colleagues if there is no way that an NP's qualifications can be checked and anyone can call themselves a nurse practitioner? Cherry http://www.nursepractitioner.org.uk (relevant documents on the site)