Does professional coaching reduce burnout and improve the mental health of doctors?

“Does professional coaching result in measurable reductions in burnout and measurable improvements in quality of life, resilience, job satisfaction, engagement, and fulfilment in doctors?”

Dyrbye et al. (2019) sought to answer this question in their randomised clinical trial of 88 doctors from the Mayo Clinic. Half the participants were placed in an intervention group whilst the other half served as the control group. Doctors in the intervention group were provided six goal oriented, solution-focused coaching sessions with a credentialled non-doctor professional coach. Participants who carried through with the full intervention demonstrated a significant reduction in emotional exhaustion and overall symptoms of burnout. They also saw improvements in their overall quality of life and resilience. Dr. Evelyn Lewin wrote about this from the perspective of General Practitioners in RACGP News.

“Great Coaches… are your external eyes and ears, providing a more accurate picture of your reality... They’re breaking your actions down and then helping you build them back up again.” - Dr. Atul Gawande

Bozer et al. (2014) set out to test the relationship between a coach’s academic background with their effectiveness, and found that a coach’s academic background in psychology was positively related to their coaching effectiveness. This was reflected in the coaching recipient’s improvements in self-awareness and job performance as reported by their direct supervisor.

What does this all mean? It means coaching for doctors (conducted by credentialled non-doctor professional coaches who have an academic background in psychology) can be an effective strategy if you want to reduce burnout, reduce emotional exhaustion, increase resilience and improve the quality of life in doctors. Is this something you’d like to explore? Drop us an email at info@helloagility.com.au. Lai-Ling is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, holds a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology, and is definitely not a doctor!