Coaching Learners During Medical School Training: Faculty Reflections on the Coaching Experience

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Qualitative Research
• Faculty Development

Background:

• Coaching medical trainees impacts faculty coaches' professional growth and relationships.
• The longitudinal evolution of this impact remains under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To longitudinally explore the evolving impact of coaching medical students on faculty coaches.
• To understand the development of faculty coaching roles over a 4-year period.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal qualitative study involving faculty coaches at Tufts University School of Medicine.
• Semistructured interviews conducted at the beginning and end of a 4-year coaching experience.
• Reflexive thematic analysis using inductive open coding of interview transcripts.

Main Results:

• Nine faculty coaches participated, reflecting on 4 years of coaching the same student cohort.
• Key themes included the centrality and evolving nature of coach-trainee relationships.
• Coaching impacted coaches' professional, personal, and relational connections to medicine.

Conclusions:

• The faculty coaches identified relationship-building as the most meaningful yet challenging aspect of their role.
• Developing skills to strengthen faculty-trainee relationships in coaching is recommended.
• Coaching relationships are central to the coaching endeavor and highly rewarding.