Academic mentoring in nursing as communicative praxis and existential formation.

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. CONCLUSION: 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.