Much research has focused on relationships between mentors and students, and on mentors' responsibilities for facilitating students' learning and assessing their competence. However, the extent to which higher-education institutions and service providers have sufficient capacity to jointly sustain the "hinterland" to mentorship has received much less attention. This article explores this capacity via the experiences and perceptions of purposively selected senior personnel with a mentorship remit. It focuses on the key areas in which findings show substantial achievements in sustaining and managing the hinterland to mentorship, as well as the challenges these present. This project is London-based but findings are likely to be similar elsewhere.

This paper, the second of a three-part series looking at change management tools, provides a practical guide on how to use common project management principles in practice. Much of the literature on project management focuses on the business arena, with little reference to clinical settings. Identifying this literature and understanding its relevance to managing projects in healthcare can be difficult. This article provides a practical guide to identifying the key principles of good project management and applying these in health settings.

The Buteyko breathing technique is recommended in national guidance for control of asthma symptoms. This article explores the evidence base for the technique, outlines its main principles and includes two cases studies.

Increasing demand for our weekly difficult-asthma clinic means routine appointments are at a premium. This led us to explore the reasons why patients failed to attend for appointments and whether contacting them by telephone within a week of their missed scheduled appointment increased attendance. Memory lapses were the most common reason for non-attendance. Telephoning non-attenders led to a two-fold increase in attendance at subsequent clinics. Non-attendance may be a reflection of poor concordance, which, in itself, may contribute to a patient's difficult asthma.