Coaching in Surgical Education: A Systematic Review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Professional Development

Background:

• Coaching is a distinct educational intervention often conflated with teaching and mentoring in surgical literature.
• Inconsistent terminology hinders the clear understanding and application of coaching in surgical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize essential criteria for the surgical coaching process.
• To describe the variable implementation of these criteria in published surgical coaching studies.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of MEDLINE and Cochrane databases for coaching interventions in surgical skills.
• Evaluation of study quality using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI).

Main Results:

• Identified 13 coaching criteria across four categories: overarching goal, coach, coachee, and coach-coachee rapport.
• Adherence to criteria varied significantly, from 73% for voluntary participation to 7% for open-ended questions.

Conclusions:

• Coaching is inconsistently utilized in surgical education literature.
• Establishing clear coaching criteria can promote consistent implementation and improve research comparability.