Available online 13 October 2022

OBJECTIVE

Coaching can provide learners with space to reflect on their performance while ensuring well-being and encouraging professional achievement and personal satisfaction outside of traditional mentorship and teaching models. We hypothesized that a proactive coaching program for general surgery interns coupled with individualized learning plans would help build foundational skills necessary for residency success and facilitate the incorporation of well-being practices into resident professional life. Here, we present the development, implementation, and outcomes of a novel well-being coaching program for surgical interns.

DESIGN AND SETTING

A well-being coaching program was developed and implemented from July 2020 through June 2021 at a single university-based surgical residency program. To assess impact of the coaching program, we designed a mixed-methods study incorporating end-of-program survey results as well as participant narratives from commitment-to-act statements for thematic content.

PARTICIPANTS

All 32 general surgery interns participated in aspects of the coaching program.

RESULTS

The end-of-program survey was completed by 19/32 (59%) interns and commitment-to-act statements were completed by 22/32 (69%). The majority (89%) of survey respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the longitudinal intern coaching program helped them reach goals they had set for themselves this academic year; 15/19 (79%) noted that the coaching experience was effective in promoting well-being practices in their life. Well-being and professional goals were identified as major themes in the end-of-the-year commitment-to-act statements. Statements specifically mentioned resources highlighted and skills taught in our coaching program such as mindfulness techniques, gratitude journals, and self-compassion strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study illustrates the effectiveness of a coaching pilot program on promoting well-being practices in a university-based general surgery internship and can be a roadmap with proven efficacy and measurable outcomes.

Section snippetsINTRODUCTION

Burnout refers to feelings of exhaustion, negativism, and reduced personal efficacy resulting from chronic workplace stress.1 It affects 25% to 30% of working Americans, and anywhere from 44% to 80% of physicians and medical trainees.2 Residents are more likely to suffer from burnout than age-matched peers, and general surgery residents tend to be affected at a greater rate than other medical specialties.3,4 Residents suffering from burnout are less likely to excel in training and more likely

METHODS

A 1-year longitudinal coaching program was developed and incorporated into the curriculum for all general surgery interns (postgraduate-year-1 level; both preliminary and categorical) at a university-based residency program. The objective of the program was to help interns set and achieve professional goals while promoting well-being practices. The program consisted of 2 main elements: (1) a coaching process utilizing a novel standardized coaching model, and (2) development of an individualized

RESULTS

All 32 surgical interns participated in aspects of this coaching program between July 2020 and June 2021. See Table 1 for participant demographics and characteristics. Interns were paired with 5 physician faculty coaches from 3 medical specialties (3 general surgery, 1 family medicine, and 1 internal medicine). Each faculty coach was paired with 6 to 7 interns. All faculty coaches identified as female and were between the ages of 34 and 45 years old (median 37). In addition to being academic

DISCUSSION

Our 1-year coaching program for surgical interns demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a longitudinal well-being curriculum as well as sustained knowledge retention of well-being practices at the end of the year. These data complement the existing literature demonstrating the effectiveness of a coaching program in ensuring professional achievement.23, 24, 25,42 These data demonstrate the opportunity coaching has to facilitate learners to achieve potential beyond the traditional model of

Presentations

The curricular design for this coaching program was presented virtually at the 2021 Innovations in Medical Education Conference as USC Keck School of Medicine in February 2021 and at the Association of Program Directors In General Surgery Annual Meeting in April 2021.

Financial Support

This work was supported by NIH/NCATS Colorado CTSA Grant Number UL1 TR002535. Its contents are the authors’ sole responsibility and do not necessarily represent official NIH views.

Conflicts of Interest

Dr. Fainstad is a certified professional coach and coaches clients outside of her academic role in an independently owned and operated LLC. In that capacity, she does not recruit or coach medical trainees.

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Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association of Program Directors in Surgery.