Every now and again an idea really grabs people’s attention, basically because it is a very good one. On this occasion, I am talking about the idea described in one of our clinical articles published online this month. The article – An initiative for student nurses to practise clinical skills at home – has been viewed over 18,820 times so far in the two weeks since it was published – to give an indication of its popularity with Nursing Times readers. The saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention – according to the philosopher Plato anyway – and that is clearly the case with the initiative described in this particular article by nurse educators from the University of Derby.