Accessing continuing professional development can be a huge problem for nurses who live in far-flung places. Lis Cook describes how the problem was tackled for community nurses in Scotland's remote islands

IN THE AUTUMN of 1995, Aileen Christie, the community nurse manager of the North Argyll Directorate of Argyll and Bute NHS Trust, approached the Queen’s Nursing Institute, Scotland, with an idea for a project to provide an in-service trainer for remote and island community nurses. Although the initial idea did not come to fruition, it gave me, the community nurse education officer at the QNI/RCN Institute, another idea.