Coaching is derived from the corporate world. To be offered a coaching program means that you are being targeted as a potential leader. This is the same in healthcare. However, coaching in healthcare has taken some time to catch up to the corporate world.
Capstan medical advisor, Sarah Dalton, joins Liverpool Medicine Ground Rounds to discuss coaching in healthcare. Sarah is joined by colleagues Yasmin Ashraff and Tara Brown to explain what coaching is, why it’s important, and it’s role in supporting people during COVID-19. They also discuss the positive results that came from a coaching program at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, for what they called the CATCH program. Click here to view the full presentation.
Coaching is a conversation that allows individuals to identify and meet the goals that are important to them.
Sarah Dalton, Capstan Medical Advisor and Paediatric Emergency Physician
What is coaching?
Coaching relies on development support, rather than experience or expertise. It is about exploring the solutions that the coachee develops through their facilitated discussions with their coach. Coaching involves performance improvement and finding ways to achieve it through self-empowered solutions. This works by the coach motivating the coachee towards achieving goals, learning and growing; allowing them to unlock their potential and maximise performance. The coachee is at the centre of all of these topics and the purpose is to address these issues and find ways to overcome them.
Why be coached?
The underlying benefit of being coached is to support your professional development. Its purpose is to address the issues a coachee is facing and then find solutions for them. Issues may include professional barriers such as developing leadership skills, improving work efficiency or seeking understanding with career development decisions. The concerns can also be more personal to the coachee including managing wellbeing, optimising meaning at work, and integrating personal life with professional life.
Coaching in healthcare
Professional coaching in healthcare has proven very beneficial. A study by JAMA Internal Medicine showed that coaching can positively affect wellbeing and distress. Specifically, the study found that coaching could reduce emotional exhaustion and overall symptoms of burnout. Additionally, those who received coaching had an improved overall quality of life and resilience.
Capstan Partners has also done similar research in relation to COVID-19. We have partnered with The Black Dog Institute to discover the effectiveness of coaching to improve psychological outcomes in hospital-based senior doctors. The study aim is to reduce psychological distress and improve positive psychological outcomes in senior doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from this study will be available soon. Click here for more background information on the study.