Faculty Coaches Research Articles

Global One Health Case Competition: Building Capacity for Addressing Infectious Threats

Extracurricular inter-professional activities advance pre-service student skills and confidence before joining the workforce. This article describes an extracurricular model, whereby students engaged in experiential learning, and had the opportunity to challenge themselves in interprofessional groups guided by faculty and inspired by professionals in their respective fields. The Global One Health Case Competition involved students from the University of Rwanda in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, and required students in teams to address an Ebola outbreak containment and response scenario. Forty students, seven faculty coaches, and five judges participated in this event. Students gained collaborative teamwork skills as they developed comprehensive strategies for managing a response to a zoonotic disease outbreak, considering political, financial, logistical, and other factors. Faculty strengthened skills in writing complex case studies for a competition model, and in mentoring of multidisciplinary student groups. Case competition is an effective educational mechanism for building the outbreak response capacity of our future workforce before they are in their real-world professional roles responding to actual zoonotic and other infectious disease threats.

A Developmental Approach to Internal Medicine Residency Education: Lessons Learned from the Design and Implementation of a Novel Longitudinal Coaching Program

ABSTRACTBackground: Resident physicians’ achievement of professional competencies requires reflective practice skills and faculty coaching. Graduate medical education programs, however, struggle to operationalize these activities.Objective: To (1) describe the process and strategies for implementing an Internal Medicine (IM) resident coaching program that evolved in response to challenges, (2) characterize residents’ professional learning plans (PLPs) and their alignment with EPAs, and, (3) examine key lessons learned.Design: The program began in 2013 and involved all postgraduate years (PGY) residents (n = 60, 100%), and 20 faculty coaches who were all IM trained and practicing in an IM-related specialty. One coach was linked with 3–4 residents for three years. Through 1:1 meetings, resident-coach pairs identified professional challenges (‘disorienting dilemmas’ or ‘worst days’), reviewed successes (‘best days’), and co-created professional learning plans. Typed summaries were requested following meetings. Coaches met monthly for professional development and to discuss program challenges/successes, which informed programmatic improvements; additionally, a survey was distributed after three program years. Data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methodologies.Results: Disorienting dilemmas and professional learning plans mapped to all 16 EPAs and four additional themes: work–life balance, career planning, teaching skills, and research/scholarship. The most-frequently mapped topics included: PGY1 – leading and working within interprofessional care teams (EPA 10), research and scholarship, and work–life balance; PGY2 – improving quality of care (EPA 13), demonstrating personal habits of lifelong learning (EPA15), and research and scholarship; PGY3 – lifelong learning (EPA15); career planning was common across all years.Conclusions: Lessons learned included challenges in coordination of observations, identifying disorienting dilemmas, and creating a shared mental model between residents, faculty, and program leadership. The coaching program resulted in professional learning plans aligned with IM EPAs, in addition to other professional development topics. Operationalization of aspects of these results can inform the development of similar programs in residency education.

Nursing Faculty Coaches: Uncovering a Hidden Resource for NCLEX-RN Success.

This article presents a nursing faculty department's strategy to empower nursing students identified as being at risk for not passing the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) on the first attempt while significantly increasing the nursing program's overall first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate. These students were identified as being at risk because of their low scores on standardized assessments with national norms predicting the likelihood of passing the NCLEX on the first attempt. This account details the NCLEX-RN Coaching Partnership as an exemplar to support nursing students' success through caring relationships with nursing faculty. Faculty coaches offered support, fostered confidence, and maintained accountability with the identified nursing students. The students provided positive feedback regarding the NCLEX-RN Coaching Partnership and ultimately attributed their passing to the coaching relationships. Seven of the eight identified students passed the examination on the first attempt; the overall program's first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate increased significantly from 78% to 90%.

Evaluation of a Faculty Coach Pilot Program to Teach and Assess Entrustable Professional Activities and Reflective Learning in Medical Students

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) have emerged as a construct to operationalize competency-based medical education. In a programmatic pilot, we assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of faculty coaches for assessing EPAs and facilitating reflective learning in medical students. Four faculty coaches were provided dedicated time and training. Students on the “Women’s and Children’s Health” and “Medical Approach to the Patient” clerkships met with coaches biweekly. Coaches confidentially observed, assessed, and offered feedback on four EPAs. The coaches also reviewed the students’ guided self-assessments and reflections. Qualitative data was collected using focus groups and structured interviews of students, coaches, clerkship directors, and staff. Student outcomes were compared between students who received and did not receive coaching. Students’ reflective learning was assessed with the Reflection-in-Learning scale (RILs) and clinical skills were assessed with an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE). One hundred-seventy-eight medical students received coaching. Students found feedback effective, appreciated the confidentiality and did not experience interference with their clerkships. RILs significantly improved in students who received coaching as compared to students who did not receive coaching. No significant differences were observed in the OSCE. A faculty coach program in clinical clerkships was feasible, well-received, and improved reflective learning.

When Coaching Meets Mentoring: Impact of Incorporating Coaching into an Existing Mentoring Program at a Community Hospital.

IntroductionOne in two physicians experiences professional burnout. Resident coaching is a novel method to provide emotional support and professional development to residents. The feasibility of implementing coaching at a community hospital has not been reported. This curricular innovation examined the feasibility and impact of integrating positive psychology coaching at a community hospital.MethodsThe Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Professional Development Coaching Program (PDCP) curriculum was used to train faculty coaches and for the informal pre-coaching session refreshers. Participants were paired and expected to participate in four 1:1 coaching sessions. The impact of the PDCP was assessed through pre- and post-PDCP online surveys.ResultsTwelve interns and nine faculty coaches were included in the program and surveyed. Survey completion was 10/12 (83%) and 6/9 (67%) at baseline and 9/12 (75%) and 7/9 (78%) at end of year (EOY) for interns and coaches, respectively. For interns, Emotional Exhaustion (EE) using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was high or medium for 60% of respondents at baseline, and 56% at EOY. Fifty percent of coaches scored medium on EE at baseline, compared to only 14.3% at EOY. Seventy-five percent of respondents rated their PDCP experience as excellent or good. Nearly all interns rated the quality of communication with their coaches highly on a five-point Likert Scale.ConclusionsImplementation of a coaching program in a community hospital residency program is feasible. Burnout using the MBI was stable from beginning to EOY for interns, but improved for coaches. Interns and coaches rated their professional development coaching program experience highly, and would recommend it to others.

A novel resident-as-teacher curriculum: the role of experiential learning and coaching.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Canadian family medicine residency programs have the challenge of training in a wide breadth of topics and competencies within a two-year program, including training residents to be effective teachers. There has been a gap in knowledge with regards to the most effective method to train residents to teach. We developed, implemented, and evaluated a novel multi-level resident-as-teacher (RAT) coaching curriculum to provide training and authentic experiences for family medicine residents in teaching medical students. Methods: A curriculum centred around multi-level coaching was designed where family medicine faculty members directly observed and provided feedback to family medicine residents teaching small group clinical skills to first and second year medical students. Family medicine residents received didactic training on how to provide effective feedback to students and manage small group dynamics, after reviewing the learning objectives that students were to achieve. This was followed by the authentic small group teaching experiences. A survey was sent out by email to all residents and faculty members who had participated in the RAT curriculum at the end of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years. Quantitative survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, correlation coefficients (Spearman's rho)). Qualitative analysis was completed through thematic analysis of respondents' written comments to open-ended survey questions. Results: 80% of 127 residents strongly agreed (26%) or agreed (54%) that the RAT program effectively developed their teaching skills. 57% either strongly agreed (17%) or agreed (40%) that the direct observation and feedback from faculty coaches helped to improve their teaching skills. There was a significant positive correlation between residents' perceptions of the usefulness of the feedback from faculty coaches and residents' perceptions of the overall RAT program's effectiveness in developing their teaching skills (r=0.42; p=0.001). Qualitative analysis revealed that residents perceived the RAT program to have solidified their own knowledge base for the content covered in the sessions. Residents also perceived a benefit of near-peer teaching for the medical students and an elevated family physicians' profile as teachers. They found the active learning experience increased their self-awareness of their teaching skills. Time away from clinical rotations and preparation time were derived as a potential drawback of the program. All faculty coaches agreed or strongly agreed that the RAT curriculum improved the teaching skills of family medicine residents. Thematic analysis of the faculty coaches' comments revealed that participating as coaches allowed for their own professional development in that their feedback and coaching skills improved. Conclusions: Our experiences and program evaluation of a novel multi-level resident-as-teacher coaching curriculum show that direct observation with feedback of authentic teaching activities is highly valued, and appears to be effective in developing resident teaching skills while fostering interest in future teaching.

Study Skills and Test Taking Strategies for Coaching Medical Learners Based on Identified Areas of Struggle.

Learners in high-performing contexts such as medical school and residency are presumed to have appropriate study skills to be successful. However, for those learners in academic difficulty who are identified as having weak study skills and poor test taking skills, faculty need tools to use to lead these struggling learners to academic success. In coaching learners on study skills, we frequently found that the study skills that helped them get into medical school or residency were no longer sufficient to make them successful in their new program. Given that there are multiple study strategies available, faculty coaches need mechanisms to first tease out which skills are the issue and then provide targeted strategies specific to each learner. In meeting with a faculty coach, learners are briefly interviewed, complete a self-assessment to explore all possible root weaknesses in their study skills, and then read strategic solutions and review with faculty how they may be implemented. This tool has been offered to 52 students, 76 residents, and 20 fellows and faculty between 2010 and 2015. One hundred forty-eight individuals participated in this innovation, with more than 91% of all individuals going on to pass the exam that they had either failed or, in the case of the in-training exam, scored below the 30th percentile on. A self-assessment tool is key to individualized insight and action plans for improving study skills. Implementation must be supported with concurrent in-person coaching.

Interprofessional education development: not for the faint of heart.

Interprofessional education (IPE) has the potential to improve communication, collaboration and coordination of care, leading to improved health care outcomes. Promoting IPE has become an aim for many professional schools. However, there are challenges to implementing meaningful curricula that involve multiple health care professional schools. In this study, we outline 12 lessons learned when designing and implementing an Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical Experience (ILCE) for 247 students from a School of Nursing, Medicine and Physician Associate Program in New England. Lessons learned over 4 years include pilot, evaluate and refine projects; create a formal interprofessional organizational structure; involve faculty who are passionate ambassadors for IPE; procure and maintain financial support; recognize power struggles and bias; overcome logistical conundrums to realize common goals, secure clinical sites and prepare IPE coaches; expect there will always be another hurdle; do not go it alone; recruit experts; recognize role differentiation and similarities; be aware of fragility of students and faculty and collect data to assess, evaluate, improve and gain buy-in. We were able to successfully implement a large program for students from three different health care professional schools that takes place in the clinical setting with faculty coaches, patients and their families. We hope that the lessons learned can be instructive to those considering a similar effort.

Portfolio-Associated Faculty: A Qualitative Analysis of Successful Behaviors from the Perspective of the Student

Purpose. While some aspects of what makes for an effective portfolio program are known, little is published about what students value in the faculty-student-portfolio relationship. Lack of student buy-in and faculty engagement can be significant challenges. The purpose of this study was to identify behaviors and types of engagement that students value in their relationships with portfolio-associated faculty. Methods. Medical students (174) participating in the Ohio State University College of Medicine Portfolio Program described behaviors observed in their portfolio-associated faculty in a survey completed at the end of the first year of their four-year program. Narrative responses were coded and categorized into themes, followed by member checking. Results. A total of 324 comments from 169 students were analyzed. Four themes were identified: (1) creating a supportive environment; (2) inspiring academic and professional growth; (3) investing time in students; and (4) providing advice and direction. Conclusions. The themes identified suggest that students value certain types of coaching and mentoring behaviors from their portfolio-associated faculty. The themes and their specific subcategories may be useful in making decisions regarding program development and guiding recruitment and training of these faculty coaches.

Bedside ultrasound curriculum for medical students: report of a blended learning curriculum implementation and validation.

Medical students on clinical rotations rarely receive formal bedside ultrasound (BUS) training. We designed, implemented, and evaluated a standardized BUS curriculum for medical students on their Emergency Medicine (EM) rotation. Teaching was aimed toward influencing four cognitive and psychomotor learning domains: BUS instrumentation knowledge, image interpretation, image acquisition, and procedural guidance. Participants viewed three instructional Web-based tutorials on BUS instrumentation, the Focused Assessment for Sonography in Trauma (FAST) examination and ultrasound-guided central venous catheter (CVC) placement. Subsequently, participants attended a 3-hour hands-on training session to discuss the same content area and practice with faculty coaches. A Web-based, multiple-choice questionnaire was administered before and after the session. During the final week of the rotation, students returned for skills assessments on FAST image acquisition and CVC placement. Forty-five medical students on an EM rotation were enrolled. Sonographic knowledge overall mean score improved significantly from 66.6% (SD ±11.2) to 85.7% (SD ±10.0), corresponding to a mean difference of 19.1% (95% CI 15.5-22.7; p < 0.001). There were high pass rates for FAST (89.0%, 40/45) and CVC (96.0%, 43/45) skills assessments. There was no significant difference between medical student posttest and EM resident test scores 85.7% (SD ±10.0) and 88.1% (SD ± 7.6) (p = 0.40), respectively. A formal BUS curriculum for medical students on EM rotation positively influenced performance in several key learning domains. As BUS competency is required for residency in EM and other specialties, medical schools could consider routinely incorporating BUS teaching into their clinical rotation curricula.

Obra-Negosyo-Eskwela Countryside Enterprise Business Upliftment (ONE CEBU) Program: Students’ Experiential Entrepreneurship Learning

This paper documents the achievements and learning realizations of students who participated in the 2010-2011 Obra-Negosyo-Eskwela Countryside Enterprise Business Upliftment (ONE CEBU) Program, a Cebu Province and Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) project, in collaboration with Cebu colleges and universities. ONE CEBUis envisioned encouraging and supporting the development of the countryside micro-entrepreneurs in the province of Cebu, with the help of university students. Consistent with Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT), the learners were brought closer to “concrete experiences,” in the real world business operations of their respective partner micro-entrepreneurs. Together with their faculty coaches and MCCI mentors, the students prepared the enterprises’ business plans which now serve as bases for the enterprises’ utilization of the financial grants provided by the Province of Cebu. Focus group discussions were conducted among the sixteen (16) student-teams after the program season phased out. The results of the interviews support this study’s hypothesis. Students claimed that their actual interaction with the enterprises’ value-chain partners their faculty coaches and mentors in the collaborative preparation of the business plans made them recognize the difference between the traditional classroom instruction learning methodology, highlighting the relevance of the real world experiential learning mode. Keywords - entrepreneurship education, experiential learning, micro-enterprises

Building Experiential Learning About Quality Improvement Into A Medical School Curriculum: The Dartmouth Experience

Educators have struggled with the best ways to teach the knowledge and skills of quality improvement to medical students. Dartmouth Medical School has a decade of experience incorporating this material into its curriculum. Working with faculty coaches, twenty-two second-year students have completed nine clinical improvement projects over the past four years. Students' input has improved processes in our clinics for the collection of samples and scheduling of appointments. Instituting these changes is complex and requires a careful evaluation that describes and understands the educational context in order to establish successful and enduring curricular reform.

Debate: a tool for teaching graduate students.

The introduction of a formal debate was used to stimulate discussion of neuroscience in our graduate program. The debate had several advantages for encouraging student participation. Several students actively participated in the debate: four debaters and five judges. Faculty coaches helped provide background knowledge and guidance before the debate but were not debaters. Faculty directed the judges in methods of evaluation but were not judges. It was felt that this method of teaching was not only fun, but also provided an opportunity to learn current topics in neuroscience, method of presentation, and critical evaluation.

Benefiting Youth Sport—College Faculty and Volunteer Coaches Working Together Equally

Benefiting Youth Sport—College Faculty and Volunteer Coaches Working Together Equally