Surgical Coaching: Patient Perspectives Regarding Surgeon Coaches in the Operating Room

Surgeons primarily utilize didactic sessions and short workshops for professional growth.1,2 To avoid plateauing and to learn to incorporate new technologies or techniques, surgical coaching programs have recently been introduced as platforms for ongoing professional development amongst independently practicing surgeons.3

Surgical coaching is a collaboration between 2 surgeons that provides personalized and self-directed goal setting through peer support and observation, followed by constructive feedback and debrief sessions.4 A study of 125 surgeons from various surgical specialties found that the majority of practicing surgeons (73%) felt that they could benefit from surgical coaching.5 In a recent Surgical Coaching for Operative Performance Enhancement (SCOPE) study by Pradarelli et al., investigators found that surgical coaching was not only beneficial for staff surgeons but also for coaches as they practiced feedback communication skills.6 In the same study, they found that a surgical coaching program could reduce burnout among surgeons as it decreased intraoperative stress.6 Similar results were demonstrated by Dyrbye et al. in a pilot randomized clinical trial of 88 practicing physicians showing that professional coaching can be an effective strategy in reducing emotional exhaustion and burnout among physicians.7

Potential barriers to implementing surgical coaching programs include time constraints, concerns about reputation, fear of loss of surgeon's autonomy, and patient beliefs.4 Currently, most literature is focused on surgeons’ perspectives about surgical coaching with little examination of patient beliefs.

The objectives of this study were to examine the baseline opinions of adult patients who were on a waitlist for surgery regarding the hypothetical situation of their treating surgeon having a surgical coach present during their surgery, their baseline knowledge about surgeon coaching, and finally their opinions about surgical coaching after an educational debriefing session.

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