What do we know about coaching in medical education? A literature review

Lovell, Ben

doi:10.1111/medu.13482

Cited by 186 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…To date, coaching has been particularly effective in improving technical skills . There is also evidence that coaching supports non‐technical skills and improves physician well‐being . This study focuses on the skills supervisors need to effectively coach residents in medical education settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying coaching skills to improve feedback use in postgraduate medical education

et al. 2019

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Objectives Coaching in medical education has recently gained prominence, but minimal attention has been given to key skills and determining how they work to effectively ensure residents are progressing and developing self‐assessment skills. This study examined process‐oriented and content‐oriented coaching skills used in coaching sessions, with particular attention to how supervisors use them to enhance resident acceptance of feedback to enhance learning. Methods This qualitative study analysed secondary audiotaped data from 15 supervisors: resident dyads during two feedback sessions, 4 months apart. The R2C2 model was used to engage the resident, build a relationship, explore reactions to feedback, explore resident perceptions of content, and coach for change. Framework analysis was used, including familiarisation with the data, identifying the thematic framework, indexing and charting the data and mapping and interpretation. Results Process skills included preparation, relationship development, using micro communication skills and techniques to promote reflection and self‐assessment by the resident and supervisor flexibility. Content skills related to the specific feedback content included engaging the resident in discussion, ensuring the discussion was collaborative and focused on goal setting, co‐developing a Learning Change Plan, ensuring resident commitment and following up on the plan. Together, these skills foster agency in the resident learner. Three overarching themes emerged from the analysis: the interconnectedness of process and content; tensions between encouraging self‐direction and ensuring progress and competence; and balancing a coaching dialogue and a teaching monologue. Conclusions Effective coaching by supervisors requires a combination of specific process and content skills that are chosen depending on the needs of the individual resident. Mastering these skills helps residents engage and develop agency in their own professional development. These outcomes depend on faculty maintaining a balance between coaching and teaching, encouraging resident self‐direction and ensuring progression to competence.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying coaching skills to improve feedback use in postgraduate medical education

et al. 2019

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“…Coaching's surging popularity in medical education may be grounded, in part, in the extent to which it just seems to make intuitive sense. Spurred on by comparisons to the worlds of sports, music and executive coaching, medical educators have begun embracing the idea that coaching may effectively foster learning. Coaching has been touted as a necessary facilitator of competency‐based medical education approaches and, perhaps, as a necessary counterweight to the frequent assessments that such approaches require .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several investigations of the impact of coaching in surgical education have yielded promising results, with coaching interventions demonstrating improvements in both technical and non‐technical skills . Lovell's recent review of coaching in medical education revealed good quality data showing that coaching improves technical skills acquisition, reduces surgical error, improves examination scores and identifies struggling students . But as published work explores what coaching does , it has not tended to illuminate what coaching is in medical education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Where philosophy meets culture: exploring how coaches conceptualise their roles

Watling

LaDonna

2019

Medical Education

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Context Although conceptually attractive, coaching in medicine remains ill‐defined, with little examination of the transferability of coaching principles from other fields. Here we explore how coaching is enacted both within and outside of medicine; we aim to understand both the elements required for coaching to be useful and the factors that may influence its translation to the medical education context. Methods In this constructivist grounded theory study, we interviewed 24 individuals across three groups: physicians who consider themselves coaches in clinical learning settings (n = 8), physicians with experience as sports, arts or business coaches (n = 10), and sports coaches without medical backgrounds (n = 6). Data collection and analysis were conducted iteratively using constant comparison to identify themes and explore their relationships. Results We identified a shared philosophy of coaching, comprising three core elements that our participants endorsed regardless of the coaching context: (i) mutual engagement, with a shared orientation towards growth and development; (ii) ongoing reflection involving both learners and coaches, and (iii) an embrace of failure as a catalyst for learning. Enacting these features appeared to be influenced by culture, which affected how coaching was defined and developed, how the coaching role was positioned within the learning context, and how comfortably vulnerability could be expressed. Participants struggled to clearly define the coaching role in medicine, instead acknowledging that the lines between educational roles were often blurred. Further, the embrace of failure appeared challenging in medicine, where showing vulnerability was perceived as difficult for both learners and teachers. Conclusions Medical education's embrace of coaching should be informed by an understanding of both coach and learner behaviours that need to be encouraged and trained, and the cultural and organisational supports that are required to foster success.

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“…Although Watling and Ginsburg write about learners, I suspect many faculty members feel similarly about assessment. In response, coaching, which has long been utilised in business and sport to help individuals achieve their personal best, is emerging as an increasingly appreciated resource in the medical educator's toolbox . Shifting into a coaching mindset may not only lessen confusion with the terms used in everyday assessment conversations, but may also lead to a qualitative shift in the perceived tensions associated with formative activities by removing the assessment component from interactions intended to be purely developmental …”

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confidence: 99%