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. 2025 Apr 19;25(1):576.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07158-y.

The impact of mentoring relationships on professional identity formation in medical education: a systematic review

Lalit Kumar Radha Krishna #  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 , Nila Ravindran #  11   12   13   14 , Hannah Yi Fang Kwok  12   13   15 , Xuan Yu Tan  11   12   13   14 , Jasper Soh  11   12   13   14 , Elizabeth Yong Mei Leong  12   13   15 , Darius Wei Jun Wan  11   12   13   14 , Tiat Yan Low  11   12   13   14 , Aiden Wei-Jun Chan  11   12   13   14 , Nicholas Chong Jin Lim  11   12   13   14 , Yen Kit Ng  11   12   13   14 , Arthena Anushka Thenpandiyan  11   12   13   14 , Jun Rey Leong  11   12   13   14 , Adele Yi Dawn Lim  11   12   13   14 , Elaine Li Ying Quah  11   12   13   14 , Leia Ning Tse  11   12   13   14 , Sriram Pl  11   12   13   14 , Sri Priyanka Rajanala  11   12   13   14 , Jun Kiat Lua  11   12   13   14 , Varsha Rajalingam  11   12   13   14 , Victoria Jia En Fam  13   16 , Ranitha Govindasamy  17   11   12   13 , Nur Amira Binte AbdulHamid  13 , Crystal Lim  18 , Eng Koon Ong  13   19 , Shin Wei Sim  20 , Stephen Mason  21 , Simon Yew Kuang Ong  17   13   19
Affiliations

The impact of mentoring relationships on professional identity formation in medical education: a systematic review

Lalit Kumar Radha Krishna et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The promise that enduring and personalised mentoring relationships shape how mentees think, feel and act as professionals, or their professional identity formation (PIF), and thus how they interact, care and support patients and families has garnered significant interest. However, efforts to marshall these elements have been limited due to a lack of effective understanding. To address this lacunae, a systematic scoping review was carried out to map current knowledge on mentoring relationships and its impact on PIF.

Methods: Guided by PRISMA guidelines and the Systematic Evidence-Based Approach (SEBA) to ensure a consistent and reproducible review, independent searches and appraisals of relevant articles published between 1st January 2000 and 4th December 2024 on PubMed, Embase, ERIC and Scopus databases were performed. Data from included articles were content and thematically analysed. Related themes and categories were combined using the SEBA methodology.

Results: 248 articles were identified across four databases and snowballing of key articles. A total of 27 articles were included. The domains identified were: (1) the mentoring ecosystem; (2) mentoring dynamics; (3) shifts in belief systems and professional identity; and (4) complex adaptive systems.

Conclusions: The mentoring programme can be seen as a mentoring ecosystem, functioning as a community of practice and supporting the socialisation process within its boundaries and along the mentoring trajectory. The culture and structure of the mentoring ecosystem help inculcate the shared belief systems and programme identity. It also nurtures stakeholder investment and commitment, as well as their internal compass which is key to contending with the complex array of influences upon their development. Through the lens of a complex adaptive system, it is also possible to appreciate transitions between roles and responsibilities and the notion of being and becoming. These findings underline the evolving nature of practice and the need for personalised and longitudinal mentoring support.

Keywords: Community of practice; Medical schools; Medicine; Mentoring; Mentoring relationships; Personhood; Professional identity formation; Socialisation process.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The Ring Theory of Personhood
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The Krishna-Pisupati Model for Professional Identity Formation
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The SEBA Process
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Fig. 4
PRISMA Flowchart
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Fig. 5
Navigating the Mentoring Trajectory on the Background of a Wider Mentoring Ecosystem
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

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