Engaging Patients in their Health Care: Lessons From a Qualitative Study on the Processes Health Coaches Use to Support an Active Learning Paradigm.

Background: While recent health-care trends rely on activated patients, few studies report direct observations of to engage and activate patients to be full participants in their own health care. The interpersonal processes and communication strategies used in integrative health coaching (IHC) may offer important insight into how clinicians can help patients step into a more active learning model rather than more typical passive roles.

Objective: This study uses verbatim transcripts of medical patients' first few IHC sessions to identify the actual processes used to help patients embrace this more active learning role.