Provision of end of life care and coping with the emotional and existential distress engendered by palliative care demands the provision of holistic support and training for palliativists. Mentoring is an effective means of meeting this need; however little is known of mentoring in palliative care and a universally accepted learning theory of mentoring remains lacking in this setting. To advance mentoring practice in palliative care, we review the only two evidenced based mentoring theories based upon narrative reviews of mentoring practice in the key specialties within palliative care teams.Building upon mentoring's mentee, mentor and organizational dependent, goal specific, context sensitive features highlighted in both recent reviews of mentoring this paper proffers a working theory of mentoring. Constructed Krishna's Mentoring Pyramid that underlines the 5 core elements of successful mentoring programs, we propose melding elements of the cognitive apprenticeship model with the adult learning theory using the multi-theories model of adult learning offers an effective starting point for a mentoring theory.More context-specific studies are needed to provide better insight into the validity of this framework in the ongoing pursuit of an interprofessional mentoring theory in Palliative Medicine.

Mentoring has an essential role in Palliative Medicine education. However, extent literature in mentoring in medicine and a lack of studies into mentoring in Palliative Medicine highlights a disconnect between theory and practice. Thematic analysis of systematic reviews of mentoring in medicine between 2000 and 2015reveals common threads in prevailing mentoring approach which provide a basis for evaluation of prevailing learning theories of mentoring.This evidence-based review, however, reveals significant gaps in prevailing data on the various aspects of the mentoring practice. These findings underline the impact of a dearth of mentoring data upon advancing a practical learning theory of mentoring essential to efforts to improve and expand Palliative Medicine mentoring programs. Nonetheless, the lack of data on the dynamics and quality of mentoring relationships, understanding of the impact of organizational factors and mentee-and mentor-dependent factors upon the mentoring process and the manner that mentoring relationships evolve serve as an area for closer attention in mentoring practice and a guide to future research.