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

Research has shown the impact that coaching medical trainees has on the coaches' professional development and relationships. However, this research has not specifically investigated the evolution of this impact. The authors conducted a longitudinal qualitative research study to follow faculty as they developed their role as coaches of medical students during a 4-year coaching experience.

The authors conducted 60-minute semistructured interviews with a selected group of faculty coaches at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, from September 2019 to June 2023. Interviews were conducted at the beginning of the coaching experience and revisited at the end of the coaching experience with the first cohort of students. The authors performed a reflexive thematic analysis of all the transcripts using inductive open coding to construct themes.

Nine faculty coaches participated in the study. The coaches' reflections on their experiences coaching the same group of medical students for 4 years focused on the centrality of relationships in coaching, the evolving nature of the coaching relationship with medical students, and the impact of coaching on the coaches' professional and personal relationships, including their relationship with the field of medicine. The coaches found building the relationship as the most meaningful, as well as the most challenging, aspect of their coaching.

The authors propose continuing to define skills for faculty to strengthen and expand relationships with trainees in these coaching relationships, which are at the core of the coaching endeavor and which our participants found as the most rewarding and yet challenging aspect of their role.