Table 1 PICOS, inclusion and exclusion criteria

Population

CNEP

• Undergraduate or post-graduate medical students or trainees in all years, residents, clinical fellows and/or attending physicians in clinical, medical, academia and/or research settings (for CNEP mentoring)

• Internal Medicine Specialties (for articles based in clinical settings discussing CNEP)

IPT

• Undergraduate or post-graduate nursing, medical social work, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students or trainees in all years, nurses, medical social workers, physiotherapists and/or occupational therapists in clinical, medical, academia and/or research settings (only for articles discussing inter-professional mentoring)

• Internal Medicine Specialties (for articles based in clinical settings) and Family Medicine (only for articles based in clinical settings discussing inter-professional mentoring)

• Non-healthcare related professions (e.g. Science, Veterinary), Psychology, Alternative and Traditional Medicine (including Chiropractic, Traditional Chinese Medicine)

• Specialties other than Internal Medicine Specialties (for articles based in clinical settings discussing CNEP)

• Specialties other than Internal Medicine Specialties (for articles based in clinical settings) and Family Medicine (only for articles based in clinical settings discussing inter-professional mentoring)

Intervention

• Electronic communication used to facilitate mentoring by senior, near-peer and peer mentors and its influence on the implementation and evaluation of mentoring program

• Electronic platforms facilitating mentoring programs

• Near-peer and peer- mentoring practices that support novice mentoring in its implementation and evaluation of mentoring programs

• Interprofessional mentoring involving mentors and mentees who are medical, nursing, medical social work, physiotherapy and occupational therapy healthcare professionals and students

• Technology used but not in the medical mentoring communication process (for instance, ultrasound near-peer mentoring)

• Mentoring for leadership as well as patient and family mentoring

• Supervising, coaching, role-modelling, advising, tutoring, networking, sponsorship, wet-bench learning, tele-learning and skills-based learning

• Poor characterisation of the way mentoring is conducted and how the mentees and mentors were involved

Comparison

• Comparison accounts of interprofessional, transprofessional, multiprofessional, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary mentoring

• Comparisons of the various definitions, descriptions, characteristics and roles of near-peer, peer- and e-mentoring in novice mentoring and their impact upon the mentoring process, mentoring relationship, mentor, mentee, host organization, and mentoring environment

Outcome

• Definition and Characteristics of IPT or CNEP mentoring

• Motivations, benefits and outcomes of IPT or CNEP mentoring, and their impact on the mentoring process, relationship, mentor, mentee, host organization and mentoring environment

• Approach to nurturing IPT or CNEP mentoring

• Methods and criteria of evaluation and assessment of IPT or CNEP mentoring

• Challenges, limitations and knowledge gaps in IPT or CNEP mentoring

Study design

• All study designs were included, including:

o Mixed methods research, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, and descriptive papers

o Grey Literature / electronic and print information not controlled by commercial publishing

o Case reports and series, ideas, editorials, and perspectives

• Articles in English or translated to English

• Year of Publication: 1 January 2000 –28th February 2021