Academic mentoring in nursing as communicative praxis and existential formation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.5658Keywords:
Critical Theory, Existentialism, Mentoring, Health Sciences, NursingAbstract
Highlights
- Mentoring is framed as a space for human development where knowledge, ethics, and care intertwine.
- Education in health sciences is not limited to training future professionals in a discipline, but also to forming whole individuals who are aware of their existence and committed to human care.
- The meaning of the nursing profession lies not only in the accumulation of knowledge, but also in the ability to translate it into actions that serve the common good.
- Mentoring is guidance in the search for professional meaning, a dialogical space in which the mentor embodies commitment and fosters in others the freedom to be and to become.
Introduction: Academic mentoring is a central strategy in nursing education, as it influences student retention and the quality of the educational process; however, implementing mentoring presents conceptual and operational ambiguities that limit its scope. Objective: To analyze mentoring through Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action and Kierkegaard’s existential perspective, in order to make visible its dialogical, ethical, and subjective dimensions. Content Synthesis: This reflection article is based on a review and integration of philosophical, pedagogical, and disciplinary literature on academic mentoring in nursing, in dialogue with findings from previous empirical research on teaching competencies and challenges in mentoring practice in the Mexican context, which serve as problematizing points of reference. Conclusions: Mentoring extends beyond the logics of academic incentives and compliance with educational quality indicators and is, therefore, understood as an ethical and meaningful practice that requires not only normative and pedagogical clarity but also the integration of communicative rationality, existential guidance, and professional responsibility.
How to cite this article: Mariscal Delgadillo Montserrat. Academic mentoring in nursing as communicative praxis and existential formation. Revista Cuidarte. 2026;17(2):e5658. https://doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.5658
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