A blended approach: How to integrate coaching, mentoring, and advising as a medical educator

Medical education faculty often take on the responsibility of helping their learners through professional or personal obstacles to achieve individual success. This can be challenging to navigate given the multiple "hats" that an individual faculty educator may wear, including coach, mentor, and advisor. Medical educators may feel uncertain as to which role may be most effective in any given interaction with a learner. Considering each as a communication strategy with unique skill sets and relational principles, rather than as a rigid role, can allow an educator more flexibility to use each approach in learner interactions. The authors discuss the separate modes of the coaching, mentoring, and advising approaches; the critical differences in relational and behavioral skills used; the potential pitfalls with each approach; and how feedback may fit into this framework. Once each approach is mastered, a medical educator may find it most effective to use a blended approach, weaving all three together intentionally, calling on each skill set as the need arises to support the learner.