Towards a Practice Guided Evidence Based Theory of Mentoring in Palliative Care

Abstract

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.

A scoping review of mentor training programs in medicine between 1990 and 2017

“…However, neither a clear syllabus nor an effective approach to mentor training exists [1,[3][4][5][6]51]. These gaps are attributed to differences in the understanding, practice, goals and context of mentoring in medical education, unique curricula, diverse mentee and mentor populations, and distinctive healthcare and education systems [1,[3][4][5][6]51].…”

“…However, neither a clear syllabus nor an effective approach to mentor training exists [1,[3][4][5][6]51]. These gaps are attributed to differences in the understanding, practice, goals and context of mentoring in medical education, unique curricula, diverse mentee and mentor populations, and distinctive healthcare and education systems [1,[3][4][5][6]51]. Mistaken intermixing of peer, near-peer, group, mosaic, patient, family, youth, leadership, and novice mentoring which display distinct features, roles and approaches and their conflation with supervision, role modelling, coaching, advising, networking and/or sponsorship in many mentoring studies [52,53] calls into question prevailing understanding of mentoring practice and how it influences mentor training [4,46,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67].…”

Mentoring in Palliative Medicine: Guiding Program Design through Thematic Analysis of Mentoring in Internal Medicine between 2000 and 2015

“…However, mentoring in Palliative Medicine remains poorly studied [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. This gap is made more evident in the face of mushrooming Palliative Medicine programs in postgraduate and undergraduate settings that increasingly acknowledge the need for mentoring programs to advance training and support trainees [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…Yet even within Internal Medicine, mentoring practice remains varied and poorly delineated [14][15][16][17]20,21,29,30]. This is attributed to the absence of a universally accepted definition of mentoring, a common approach to mentoring, [14][15][16][17]20,21,29,30] the continued conflation of mentoring processes including peer, near-peer, leadership, patient, youth and family mentoring [20,21,29] and the mistaken blending of preceptorship, counseling, role modeling, sponsorship and supervision [14][15][16][17]20,21,29,30] with mentoring. Kashiwagi et al [14] noted that such intermingling of terms impedes the provision of consistent, specific, timely, appropriate and personalised mentoring support, obscures mentoring goals and inhibits the proffering of best practices in mentoring.…”

“…Kashiwagi et al [14] noted that such intermingling of terms impedes the provision of consistent, specific, timely, appropriate and personalised mentoring support, obscures mentoring goals and inhibits the proffering of best practices in mentoring. The subsequent lack of a consistent mentoring approach endangers the oversight of mentoring relationships, obscures mentoring roles and responsibilities and impedes the attainment of mentoring goals [14][15][16][17]20,21,29,30], which ultimately compromises the mentoring process.…”