The coaching approach in graduate medical education: Practical considerations for program creation and implementation

Coaching supports many aspects of competency-based medical education, particularly by providing individualized instruction throughout the duration of the training experience. Many of the current recommendations regarding coaching have been established at the undergraduate medical education (UME) level. Although medical training is ideally envisioned as a continuum, trainees in graduate medical education (GME) are exposed to different learning environments, assessment processes, and sometimes more limited resources (institutional vs. departmental funding, personnel, and space) and time than their UME counterparts. These differences have important implications for the coaching approach needed for GME trainees. There are few papers that describe the specific trainee, residency program, and faculty coach characteristics to consider when designing a residency coaching program as well as the difference between a traditional coaching model and a coaching approach in medical education. The authors aim to specifically address coaching in GME and provide practical considerations for creating and implementing a coaching program for residents. Readers can use this as a framework to determine trainee-, program- and institution-specific needs when considering a coaching program for GME trainees.