Beyond advising and mentoring: Competencies for coaching in medical education

Abstract

Background: Coaching supports academic goals, professional development and wellbeing in medical education. Scant literature exists on training and assessing coaches and evaluating coaching programs. To begin filling this gap, we created a set of coach competencies for medical education using a modified Delphi approach.

Methods: An expert team assembled, comprised of seven experts in the field of coaching. A modified Delphi approach was utilized to develop competencies.

Results: Fifteen competencies in five domains resulted: coaching process and structure, relational skills, coaching skills, coaching theories and models, and coach development.

Conclusion: These competencies delineate essential features of a coach in medical education. Next steps include creating faculty development and assessment tools for coaching.

Keywords: Mentoring; medical education research; medicine.