We have been in a series looking at various aspects of physician coaching. We started with the definition and moved on to the coach and coachee components, the tools and approaches, and the evidence for physician coaching. This week, I want to move the conversation to attempt to answer one of the most common questions I receive. “If I want to receive coach training, where would you recommend?” This will be an incomplete response but, hopefully, give you more understanding. I...

We are continuing our blog series, What is physician coaching?  So far, we have covered the definition, discussed what the coach and the coachee bring to sessions, and the commonly used tools and approaches. This week we review some articles and evidence for physician coaching.

Dr. Atul Gawande, Harvard surgeon, author, and healthcare leader, was one of the earliest to experiment with coaching in healthcare. He published Personal Best in the New York Times in 2011. Initially,...

We are continuing our blog series, What is physician coaching?  So far, we have covered the definition and discussed what both the coach and the coachee bring to the session. This week we will review commonly used tools and maybe unpack some of the various formats. I think now is a good time to mention that the term coaching in the coaching profession varies from that in academic coaching - but stay tuned, I'll talk more about GME Academic coaching tools in an...

We are in the middle of a blog series all about physician coaching. Last week, we reviewed the definition - what it is and what it’s not. Today, I want to unpack the components of what the coach and the coachees both bring to the session to optimize the power of coaching. In the coming weeks, we will review some of the coaching tools, the variations of coaching, the evidence around coaching in medicine, the ways it’s being utilized in graduate medical training, and the...

I’m starting a new blog series all about physician coaching. We will cover the basics of what physician coaching is and isn’t, what the coach and the coachees bring to the session, the tools, the evidence, coach training, and how it can be utilized in graduate medical training.

Today, I want to ensure we are all working off the same definition of professional coaching.

I always like to start with what it is NOT.

It is not advising.

It is not...

This week, we conclude our series of the three foundational ingredients that support physicians’ psychological health. We camped out on Autonomy for five weeks, then covered Relatedness last week. This week we focus on Competence.

I will be focusing on the individual’s proficiency in medicine. (I hope no one is disappointed that I will NOT be taking on the demonstration of competencies to specialty boards, governmental stakeholders, hospital organizations,...

This week, we are finally moving on in our series to the second key component for physicians' psychological health. Relatedness - a sense of belonging and connection - is critical, not only in team relations but in your personal mental fitness. Brené Brown has described belonging as the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity. It is connected to positive, lasting, and significant interpersonal relationships.

Relatedness...

We are finally in the last chapter of autonomy as one of three key underpinnings of psychological fitness for physicians – autonomy, relatedness, and competence. This week, I will attempt to tackle – imperfectly so – the unique situation of autonomy for residents and fellows. After all, trainees are not different in what supports their psychological health than attendings.

Autonomy of task/technique (i.e., supervision): Most discussions about autonomy for trainees...

Continuing our series on psychological foundations for physician mental fitness (autonomy, connectedness, and competence) via self-determination theory (SDT), we are rounding out the final domain of physician autonomy this week – Team. Interestingly, over the past two weeks, many of my examples demonstrated ideas for autonomy of time, task, and technique actually involved team. Teamwork is interwoven into medicine, so it makes sense that it would impact the other three arenas.

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We continue to explore the foundational needs for psychological fitness – autonomy, connectedness, and competence. Autonomy has four important domains: time, tasks, techniques, and team. We covered time last week. This week, we will reflect on the tasks and techniques.

Tasks/Techniques. Depending on the setting practiced in (academic, hospital, rural full-spectrum, community outpatient, etc.), there are numerous tasks we each perform. I'm sure there are places where the...