Medical careers and coaching

• Main Author: Reid, J.
• Published: Oxford Brookes University 2011
• Subjects: 610.71
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.588477

Research in the medical careers field in the UK tends to concentrate on career destinations for doctors and is used as an input into workforce planning by the Department of Health. Changes to medical career pathways, introduced by the Modernising Medical Careers programme, have brought into focus the need for medical schools and postgraduate deaneries to provide career support to medical students and postgraduate doctors. This study considers the practical aspects of how coaching can support these doctors to make career choices. The research is a qualitative case study that considers medical careers within a medical education context. Interviews were carried out with 13 coaches; five clients were either interviewed or asked to complete a qualitative questionnaire, and I kept my own reflexive diary. Thematic analysis was used to develop the findings from the research. Four key areas were identified in the data: what doctors bring to coaching, what coaches need to work with doctors, the coaches’ approaches to coaching, and the coaching conversation. They have been combined into a framework that can be used by coaches, and also by trainers and supervisors who work with postgraduate doctors. From a wider perspective, career coaching seems to encompass the aims of career support as well as go beyond it into other aspects of doctor’s lives, such as work–life balance. Additionally, coaches used stories and metaphors in their work: one metaphor described doctors as being surrounded by the ‘medical bubble’. The issues of the coaches’ expertise and self-disclosure in coaching are discussed. Trainers and supervisors who provide career support may wish to consider their own development needs.