To ensure pre-registered midwifery students are fit for practice, it is recommended that when students attend their clinical placements they are allocated to work alongside mentors who have undertaken mentorship training and, more recently have fulfilled additional criteria, that ensures they are fully qualified (Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC), 2006). This article aims to assist midwives who are considering enrolling on a mentorship programme. The paper illustrates how Bandura's (1977) model of behavioural and social learning theories can be used to facilitate student learning with an emphasis on using role modelling as a teaching and learning strategy. A clinical scenario is used to demonstrate the link between theory and practice. It is also suggested that existing mentors should be updated on the value of role modelling and the application of additional teaching and learning strategies that support students' learning within the clinical setting.

Most animals can discriminate between pairs of numbers that are each less than four without training. However, North Island robins (Petroica longipes), a food-hoarding songbird endemic to New Zealand, can discriminate between quantities of items as high as eight without training. Here we investigate whether robins are capable of other complex quantity discrimination tasks. We test whether their ability to discriminate between small quantities declines with (1) the number of cache sites containing prey rewards and (2) the length of time separating cache creation and retrieval (retention interval). Results showed that subjects generally performed above-chance expectations. They were equally able to discriminate between different combinations of prey quantities that were hidden from view in 2, 3, and 4 cache sites from between 1, 10, and 60 s. Overall results indicate that North Island robins can process complex quantity information involving more than two discrete quantities of items for up to 1 min long retention intervals without training.

Gaze following and awareness of attentional cues are hallmarks of human and non-human social intelligence. Here, we show that the North Island robin (Petroica longipes), a food-hoarding songbird endemic to New Zealand, responds to human eyes. Robins were presented with six different conditions, in which two human experimenters altered the orientation or visibility of their body, head or eyes in relation to mealworm prey. One experimenter had visual access to the prey, and the second experimenter did not. Robins were then given the opportunity to 'steal' one of two mealworms presented by each experimenter. Robins responded by preferentially choosing the mealworm in front of the experimenter who could not see, in all conditions but one. Robins failed to discriminate between experimenters who were facing the mealworm and those who had their head turned 90° to the side. This may suggest that robins do not make decisions using the same eye visibility cues that primates and corvids evince, whether for ecological, experiential or evolutionary reasons.

The aim of this study was to find out whether final-year student midwives were influenced by traditional (non evidence-based) practices of their clinical mentors. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 145 students from five different universities spread across the North of England. Despite students having perceived that the higher education institution (HEI) advocated evidence-based practices (EBP), the majority of students felt that what was taught in the HEI, did not always correspond to what happened in the workplace. Most agreed that within the clinical setting there were some practices that were based on tradition and agreed that some of these practices were good because they appeared to work. While the majority of students indicated a preference towards using EBP, the findings suggested that, where there was an embedded use of traditional practice within the workplace, the students were more likely to adopt these traditional practices of their mentors. While statistically most perceived they would challenge their mentors if they did not employ EBP, their comments overall conflicted with these findings, as many felt that by challenging their mentors they might jeopardise their clinical assessments and career prospects.

Telework (paid work performed at home using new communications technologies) is a research site where concerns about globalisation, flexible work, technology and gender relations coalesce. My research suggests that the permeability of the boundary between home and work leads to power struggles around the use of domestic space and is symbolic of the wider negotiation of the conflicted identities of worker, parent and partner.