The Impact of Professional Coaching on Early Career Academic Emergency Physicians

Mayo Clinic

Status: Completed

Conditions: Development, Human; Well-Being; Professional Burnout; Professional Role; Goals; Physician's Role; Anxiety; Stress; Leadership

Treatments: Behavioral: Professional coaching

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03125330

16-010192

Details and patient eligibility

About

This research study is designed to answer the question: How does professional coaching impact early career academic emergency medicine physician goal attainment, leadership strengths, well-being, and burnout?

Full description

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found coaching to have significant positive effects on goal attainment, well-being, coping skills, work attitudes, and goal-directed self-regulation. Randomized controlled studies of professional coaching have found significant positive effects in various settings including high school teachers and students, postgraduate students in a major university, and executives in the commercial, government, and education sectors.

Coaching provides the participant focused time with a trained professional who facilitates that participant's self-determined and self-directed problem-solving and change. Coaching helps the participant "get on the balcony" away from the action on the "dance floor" to see things from a different and broader perspective and, in doing so, enriches the participant's ability to generate options, challenge biases, understand the effects of emotions, and consider uncertainty.

This study also establishes the level of adult development of academic faculty and creates an initial qualitative dataset for further longitudinal study and theory generation for physician well-being, burnout, leadership strengths, and goal attainment.

Enrollment: 46 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion:

• Emergency physicians
• Academic appointment of Instructor or Assistant Professor
• Work greater than 80% of their time in a residency and fellowship program approved by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) will be invited to participate in the study.

Exclusion:

• Mayo Clinic emergency physicians are not eligible for this study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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46 participants in 3 patient groups

One-to-One Coaching

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to One-to-One Coaching meet for an initial 2-hour coaching session, followed by seven 1-hour coaching sessions every 3-weeks. These eight sessions take place over the course of 6 months. Additional requirements for One-to-One Coaching: * Complete a 30-minute online assessment of goal attainment, well-being, burnout, and leadership strengths (a) at study enrollment, (b) at 6-months after study enrollment, and (c) 12-months following study enrollment. * Complete a 15-minute VIA Character Strengths Test online prior to One-to-One Coaching. * Following the completion of the final coaching session, participants are interviewed by a con-investigator by phone call to assess the experience of coaching. Each coaching session will be recorded, transcribed, anonymized, and analyzed to identify common themes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Professional coaching

Group Coaching

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants meet for 90-minutes each month for 6 months for facilitated professional coaching with a group of colleagues. Additional requirements: * Complete a 30-minute online assessment of goal attainment, well-being, burnout, and leadership strengths (a) at study enrollment, (b) at 6-months after study enrollment, and (c) 12-months following study enrollment. * Complete a 15-minute VIA Character Strengths Test online prior to Group Coaching. * Prior to your initial group coaching session, participate in a 75-minute private phone interview with the primary investigator to discuss the how you make decisions and make sense of the world. * Following the completion of the final coaching session, participants are interviewed by a con-investigator by phone call to assess the experience of coaching. Each coaching session will be recorded, transcribed, anonymized, and analyzed to identify common themes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Professional coaching

Group Coaching Waitlist

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants are offered group coaching at the completion of the 12-month study period. Six 90-minute group coaching sessions will occur over the course of six months. Additional requirements: • Complete a 30-minute online assessment of goal attainment, well-being, burnout, and leadership strengths (a) at study enrollment (b) and at 6-months after study enrollment.