Background Mentors need diverse competencies, sources of motivation and characteristics to successfully mentor nursing students and support students’ learning processes. Effective mentoring education can benefit future nursing professionals, students’ satisfaction and learning, as well as the general perception of the nursing profession. Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate how an educational intervention affects nurse mentors’ competence in mentoring nursing students during clinical practice. Design A quasi‐experimental study design with pre‐ and post‐tests was used. Settings Educational interventions were conducted in one university hospital and two central hospitals in Finland between 2013 and 2017. The intervention was conducted twice per year with a duration of 3 months for each group. The inclusion criteria for the participants were as follows: volunteer participation to mentor education employment at the university hospital or central hospitals in Northern Finland. Methods The intervention aimed to increase Registered Nurses’ competence in mentoring nursing students. The education lasted 3 months and included online learning as well as three face‐to‐face teaching sessions. A total of 120 nurse mentors completed the Mentor Competence Instrument (MCI), which includes 10 subscales that describe various competence areas, before and after the education. Results Nurse mentors’ mentoring competence increased across all mentoring competence areas after the educational intervention. More specifically, the participating nurses showed a statistically significant increase in their competence regarding knowledge of mentoring practices in the workplace, student‐centred evaluation, identifying student needs, mentoring practices between mentor and student, supporting students’ learning processes, goal orientation in mentoring and constructive feedback. Conclusions On an international level, nurse mentors are not typically required to have completed mentoring education prior to the mentoring of nurse students. Since mentoring education increased nurses’ competence at mentoring nursing students, we recommend that all nurse degree programs include mentoring education to prepare future nurses for the important future role in mentoring.

Aims: This study aimed to explore nursing and midwifery students' evaluation of the clinical learning environment and mentoring and to identify distinct student profiles relating to their perceptions.Design: This study employed a cross-sectional design. Settings:The study population included nursing and midwifery students in a university hospital in Finland.Participants: All nursing and midwifery students who completed their clinical placement were invited to take part in the study in the academic year 2017-2018. Methods:The data (N=2609) were gathered through an online survey using the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale. The data were analyzed using a K-mean cluster algorithm to identify nursing and midwifery students' profiles. Results:The findings from this study indicate four distinct profiles (A, B, C and D) of nursing and midwifery students in relation to the clinical learning environment and mentoring. Profile A (N=1352) students evaluated their clinical learning environment and mentoring to the highest level (mean varied from 9.44 to 8.38); and Profile D (N=151)-to the lowest (mean varied from 5.93 to 4.00). Conclusion:The findings highlight that nursing and midwifery students evaluate their clinical learning environment and mentoring more highly when: they have a named mentor, student and mentor discuss learning goals, there is a final assessment in clinical learning, the mentor's guidance skills support student learning, the clinical learning supports the student's Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved professional development and pre-clinical teaching in an educational institution supports learning in the clinical placement. Impact: Clinical learning plays an important role in nurse and midwifery education.Mentoring of clinical practice was shown to have a great influence on students' perceptions of their success in clinical learning. We suggest that clinical practice should be strengthened by the building of collaboration between nursing teachers and registered nurses.