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

Background: Mentoring in Palliative Medicine is critical to training, career satisfaction and professional development. Yet, there are no accounts of effective mentoring programs in Palliative Medicine. This gap is attributed to a failure to define mentoring practice and a lack of acknowledgment of mentoring’s context-specific, goal-sensitive, mentee-, mentor- and organizational-dependent nature that has hindered effective review of mentoring programs. Objective: Drawing upon similarities between training in Palliative Medicine and Internal Medicine, this thematic analysis seeks to identify common themes in prevailing mentoring programs in Internal Medicine that can guide the design of mentoring programs in Palliative Medicine. Design: A thematic review of literature reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses featured in PubMed, ERIC, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, OVID and Science Direct databases and published in English between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2015 involving mentoring in Internal Medicine was carried out. Results: 466 abstracts were retrieved, 17 full-text reviews evaluated and 7 reviews included. Thematic analysis revealed 9 themes: common features within definitions of mentoring, characteristics of mentoring relationships, the mentoring approach, facets of the mentoring process, desired characteristics/actions of a mentor and mentee, benefits and drawbacks of mentoring and differences between undergraduate and postgraduate mentoring. Conclusions: Common themes highlight the importance of nurturing personalized mentoring relationships and addressing the different goals of mentoring in undergraduate and postgraduate settings. Supportive mentoring environments can be provided through host organizations that help in selecting, training and supporting mentees and mentors to meet clearly defined goals.