Impact of a coaching program on resident perceptions of communication confidence and feedback quality.

BACKGROUND: While communication is an essential skill for providing effective medical care, it is infrequently taught or directly assessed, limiting targeted feedback and behavior change. We sought to evaluate the impact of a multi-departmental longitudinal residency communication coaching program. We hypothesized that program implementation would result in improved confidence in residents' communication skills and higher-quality faculty feedback. METHODS: The program was implemented over a 3-year period (2019-2022) for surgery and neurology residents at a single institution. Trained faculty coaches met with assigned residents for coaching sessions. Each session included an observed clinical encounter, self-reflection, feedback, and goal setting. Eligible residents completed baseline and follow-up surveys regarding their perceptions of feedback and communication. Quantitative responses were analyzed using paired t-tests; qualitative responses were analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: The baseline and follow-up survey response rates were 90.0% (126/140) and 50.5% (46/91), respectively. In a paired analysis of 40 respondents, residents reported greater confidence in their ability to communicate with patients (inpatient: 3.7 vs. 4.3, p < 0.001; outpatient: 3.5 vs. 4.2, p < 0.001), self-reflect (3.3 vs. 4.3, p < 0.001), and set goals (3.6 vs. 4.3, p < 0.001), as measured on a 5-point scale. Residents also reported greater usefulness of faculty feedback (3.3 vs. 4.2, p = 0.001). The content analysis revealed helpful elements of the program, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. Receiving mentorship, among others, was indicated as a core program strength, whereas solving session coordination and scheduling issues, as well as lowering the coach-resident ratio, were suggested as some of the improvement areas. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that direct observation of communication in clinical encounters by trained faculty coaches can facilitate long-term trainee growth across multiple core competencies. Future studies should evaluate the impact on patient outcomes and workplace-based assessments.

Impact of Longitudinal Coaching on Pediatric Residents' Professional Identity Formation: A Multi-Institution Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVE: Coaching has emerged in medical education as a strategy for trainees' development and has been endorsed by the Coalition for Physician Accountability and the American Medical Association. However, there is a lack of literature on how coaching impacts residents' professional identity formation (PIF). The purpose of this study was to explore how longitudinal clinical coaching impacted the professional identity of residency graduates. METHODS: In July to November 2020, we conducted an Institutional Review Board-approved qualitative study with semistructured interviews of residency graduates from 2 pediatric programs who participated in a longitudinal coaching program. We inductively analyzed the transcripts using thematic analysis, guided by the sensitizing principles of PIF. We did a member check to enhance trustworthiness. RESULTS: We interviewed 34 residency graduates from 2 institutions and identified 4 themes on how coaches influenced residency graduates' PIF by 1) the presence of a trusting relationship; 2) creating trust and sense of belonging through longitudinal encounters, supportive reflection, and formative feedback; 3) integrating clinical skill, career interests, and work-life integration; and 4) reflecting on their own personal and professional identities. Residency graduates highlighted coaching strategies that coaches, coaching programs, and residents themselves can take to promote resident PIF during residency. CONCLUSIONS: Residency coaches have the potential to influence residents' PIF through their longitudinal relationship grounded in trust. Coaching strategies can be used to enhance resident clinical and professional development during residency training.

CRISP: An Inpatient Pediatric Curriculum for Family Medicine Residents Using Clinical Reasoning and Illness Scripts.

Introduction: Clinical reasoning enables safe patient care and is an important competency in medical education but can be challenging to teach. Illness scripts facilitate clinical reasoning but have not been used to create pediatric curricula. Methods: We created CRISP (Clinical Reasoning with Illness Scripts in Pediatrics), a curriculum comprising four 1-hour learning sessions that deliberately incorporated clinical reasoning concepts and illness scripts to organize how four common chief complaints were taught to family medicine residents on inpatient pediatric rotations. We performed a multisite curriculum evaluation project over 6 months with family medicine residents at four institutions to assess whether the use of clinical reasoning concepts to structure CRISP was feasible and acceptable for learners and instructors and whether the use of illness scripts increased knowledge of four common pediatric chief complaints. Results: For all learning sessions, family medicine residents and pediatric hospitalists agreed that CRISP's format was preferable to traditional didactic lectures. Pre-/posttest scores showed statistically significant increases in family medicine resident knowledge (respiratory distress [n = 42]: pretest, 72%, posttest, 92%; abdominal pain [n = 44]: pretest, 82%, posttest, 96%; acute febrile limp [n = 44]: pretest, 68%, posttest, 81%; well-appearing febrile infant [n = 42]: pretest, 58%, posttest, 73%; ps < .05). Discussion: By using clinical reasoning concepts and illness script comparison to structure a pediatric curriculum, CRISP represents a novel instructional approach that can be used by pediatric hospitalists to increase family medicine resident knowledge about diagnoses associated with common pediatric chief complaints.

Tips for developing a coaching program in medical education.

This article provides structure to developing, implementing, and evaluating a successful coaching program that effectively meets the needs of learners. We highlight the benefits of coaching in medical education and recognize that many educators desiring to build coaching programs seek resources to guide this process. We align 12 tips with Kern's Six Steps for Curriculum Development and integrate theoretical frameworks from the literature to inform the process. Our tips include defining the reasons a coaching program is needed, learning from existing programs and prior literature, conducting a needs assessment of key stakeholders, identifying and obtaining resources, developing program goals, objectives, and approach, identifying coaching tools, recruiting and training coaches, orienting learners, and evaluating program outcomes for continuous program improvement. These tips can serve as a framework for initial program development as well as iterative program improvement.