Mentors' competence in mentoring nursing students in clinical practice: Detecting profiles to enhance mentoring practices.

The K-means cluster analysis identified three distinct profiles: A (n = 926); B (n = 566); and C (n = 85). The profiles showed significantly different values (p < .001) across all seven areas of mentoring competence. In comparison with the other profiles, nurses in profile A were older, had more work experience and were more probably to have completed mentoring-specific training.