The future role of healthcare mentors and coaches in navigating workplace culture

A core value of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) is to be a nurturing organisation. As part of being a nurturing organisation, ANZAHPE enshrines the value of mentorship. In this paper, we explore the roles of mentors and coaches. We look at how these roles might adapt over the next 50 years to assist novices to understand their workplace culture in order to enable them to function, survive and thrive within this context. We further propose that the respective roles of mentors and coaches will become increasingly distinct from each other to optimise the support that is available for new health professionals, educators and researchers as they enter the workforce and prepare for lifelong learning and scholarship.