With all of the changes happening in healthcare, it can be difficult to keep up. Coaching can help doctors better navigate changes that are happening now, as well as changes that have yet to happen.
Darelyn “DJ” Mitsch from the Healthcare Coaching Institute was a guest during season 1 of our podcast. She explained the process of healthcare coaching and how surgeons can benefit. There are a lot of challenges that healthcare professionals face, and coaching helps surgeons develop a mindset to deal with those challenges.
What is Healthcare Coaching & Who Benefits?
Healthcare coaching teaches doctors the skills and mindsets they need to take on leadership roles. Even if a surgeon isn’t taking on a leadership role within their practice, when they are in the operating room, they are leading their team. They have the power to create an environment that is beneficial to themselves, the other employees, and the patient.
Develop Leadership Skills to Meet Your Career Goals
Healthcare coaching helps surgeons develop those leadership skills to meet their career goals and navigate problems they might face. For example, a common problem among surgeons is burnout. Surgeons are taught all of the technical skills they need to be great at what they do, but they are taught coping skills like self-care. Being a surgeon is a highly-demanding career, often with very long hours. It’s very easy to burn out if you aren’t taking care of yourself.
Develop Problem-Solving Skills
Healthcare coaching also helps surgeons develop and hone the skills they need to work through problems they are facing in the workplace or with their careers. When surgeons work with a healthcare coach, they can get to the root of those issues and find a pathway forward to address them. Though perhaps a bit therapy-like in nature, healthcare coaching is very much career and leadership-focused, and specifically addresses issues through the lens of how different things affect a surgeon’s ability to operate at full capacity.
How Healthcare Coaching Helps Surgeons Take on Leadership Roles
Different healthcare coaches may have different processes on how to help surgeons take on leadership roles. At Healthcare Coaching Institute, DJ calls it a process of moving from “chaos to change.”
Examining the Chaos
It starts, naturally, with examining the chaos–what’s getting in the way? What challenges, confusion, complexities, discouragements, etc. are preventing the surgeon from stepping into that role? This is about getting down to the source of the issue. Often, fear, discouragement, or simply being overwhelmed holds a surgeon back from taking on that leadership role.
Beginning the Coaching Process
Once the problems are identified, the coaching can begin. During the coaching process, surgeons get guidance on how to move forward, assess risks, prioritize goals, and work toward solutions. Of course, progress is rarely linear–there may be some back-and-forth before the surgeon is able to truly see change. The end goal of the coaching process is to help surgeons change the habits that are holding them back and develop the focus, clarity, and vision they need to take on those leadership roles.
Great surgeons have the technical skills they need to be good at what they do. Healthcare coaching helps surgeons take their careers to the next level and gives them the skills they need outside of healthcare to do their jobs effectively.
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