Coaching in Humanism
A Pilot Program for Medical Students
Bibliographic Data
Purpose: Empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness are critical skills for physicians to develop, as they have been linked to improved patient satisfaction, enhanced patient comfort, and in some cases, significantly better health outcomes.1–4 Despite the established value of these traits, however, medical school curricula often fail to directly address these skills and instead regularly depend upon the hidden curriculum to instill them within medical students. With the current health care landscape characterized by burnout and fatigue, now more than ever are formal, targeted interventions needed to develop these crucial skills within medical trainees. No studies to date have assessed the success of an academic coaching program within undergraduate medical education (UME) in formally instructing medical students in empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness. The objective of this innovation was thus to (1) pilot an academic coaching program at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (PSOM) and (2) assess the program’s impact on clinical medical students’ confidence in demonstrating empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness at the patient bedside. Approach: Coaching Program: The academic coaching program employed in this pilot project was adapted from the hArt of Medicine—a preexisting, evidence-based coaching framework.5 The academic coach for this pilot project was an attending physician at PSOM who was trained and certified in the hArt of Medicine coaching framework over the course of 4 months. Participants: Participants in this pilot project were 40 PSOM third-year medical students who completed their pediatric clerkship rotation between June 2022 and December 2022. Intervention: Each third-year medical student participant was required to complete 1 academic coaching experience while on their pediatric clerkship. The coaching experience consisted of (1) a 15-minute patient encounter in which the student was virtually observed by their academic coach, and (2) a 45-minute coaching conversation in which the academic coach provided focused feedback on the student’s demonstration of empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness at the patient bedside. Assessment of Impact: Using a pre–post survey design, medical student participants were surveyed before and after their academic coaching session. To provide evidence for instrument validity, the pre- and postsurveys were developed through an iterative process by a team of content experts over the course of 2 months. Survey results were collected through REDCap and analyzed in Excel. Outcomes: Paired t test results from the pre- and postsurvey data showed that medical student confidence in demonstrating empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness at the bedside significantly increased following an academic coaching experience (P < .01). Further, the large majority of medical student participants identified their coaching experience as a valuable part of their clerkship education (97.5%) and expressed a desire for more coaching in the future (92.5%). Significance: With empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness each linked to important patient outcomes—influencing patient satisfaction, professionalism, and treatment success—it is crucial that medical school curricula place a formal emphasis on their development. The results from this pilot project show that academic coaching is a potential avenue through which UME can formally address these skills, and thus should be explored as a powerful tool within clinical education. In conclusion, this innovation highlights an opportunity within UME to use academic coaching in the instruction of empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness. Among the burnout and fatigue that often accompanies a medical education, it is exceedingly important to remind students of the humanity of their future patients: Academic coaching can help ensure that we are equipping our future doctors with the communication skills required to provide compassionate and competent patient care. Paul Kukulski and Dr. Shannon Martin for their guidance throughout the Pritzker Summer Research Program, and Blaine Lesnik, a patient with a personal investment in improving empathy, humanism, and patient-centeredness
Coaching · Curriculum · Empathy · Health care · Health coaching · Humanism · Medical education · Pedagogy · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills · Empathy and Medical Education · Innovations in Medical Education · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology
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