Toward an Interprofessional Mentoring Program in Palliative Care - A Review of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Mentoring in Medicine, Nursing, Surgery and Social Work

Objective: Key to effective Palliative Care is interdisciplinary collaboration and holistic support of members of the multidisciplinary team. Mentoring is increasingly seen as being a critical facet of this process however; there is a dearth of guidance on establishing such a program within the Palliative Care setting. To fill this gap, this review analyzes mentoring programs in medicine, surgery, nursing and social work in order to identify key elements and common facets of successful mentoring programs that can be used to create a multi-professional mentoring program in Palliative Care. Methods: A review of systematic review of undergraduate and postgraduate mentoring programs in medicine, surgery, nursing and social work involving senior clinicians and junior doctors and/or medical students. Results: A total of 20 reviews were included. One review was on mentoring in medicine and nursing, 10 in medicine, 4 in surgery and 5 in nursing. There were no reviews of mentoring in social work. Thematic analysis revealed 3 themes, which were definition of mentoring, components of a mentoring approach and elements of the mentoring process Conclusion: Despite its context sensitive, goal specific and mentee- and mentor- dependent features, common features in mentoring in medicine, surgery and nursing lay the foundation for a learning theory of interprofessional mentoring that can guide construct effective mentorship programs.