Review Article
Towards a Practice Guided Evidence Based Theory of Mentoring in Palliative Care
Loo Teck Wee Wesley1,2, Muhammad Fadhli Bin Mohamad Ikbal1,2, Wu Jingting1,2, Muhammad Taufeeq Wahab1,2, Yeam Cheng Teng2, Ee Hui Fang Margaret2*, Ravindran Kanesvaran1,3,4and Lalit Kumar Radha Krishna1,2,3,51Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore
2Department of Palliative Medicine National Cancer Center, Singapore
3Practice Course 2, Duke NUS Postgraduate Medical School, Singapore
4Department of Medical Oncology National Cancer Center, Singapore
5Department of Medical Oncology National Cancer Center, Singapore
- *Corresponding Author:
- Ee Hui Fang Margaret
Elective Student, Department of Palliative Medicine National Cancer Center
Singapore, 11 Hospital Drive, Singapore 169610
Email: margaret.ee8@gmail.com
Received date: November 29, 2016; Accepted date: December 28, 2016; Published date: January 02, 2017
Citation: Wesley LT, Mohamad Ikbal MF, Wu JT, Wahab MT, Cheng Teng Y, et al. (2017) Towards a Practice Guided Evidence Based Theory of Mentoring in Palliative Care. J Palliat Care Med 7:296. doi: 10.4172/2165-7386.1000296
Copyright: © 2017 Wesley LT, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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.
