Developing effective health coaches: Experience gained in a clinical trial of a health coach intervention.

Patient Educ Couns

School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNS Health, New York, NY, USA; Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, AU. Electronic address:

Published: March 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study aimed to identify effective characteristics of health coaches and how these can be developed.
  • Individual interviews with 11 health coaches and workers highlighted three main themes: personal, professional, and program characteristics that lead to successful health coaching.
  • Findings suggest that while some key skills can be trained through programs and peer support, inherent traits like trustworthiness and compassion are crucial and can be assessed during hiring.

Article Abstract

Objective: To identify the characteristics of an effective health coach and describe how these characteristics can be developed.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used to obtain insights from a convenience, homogenous sample of health coaches, social workers, and research staff members collaborating as members of a team providing a health coaching telehealth intervention for lay caregivers. Individual interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: The 11 study participants interviewed were predominately married (75 %), female (92 %) and Caucasian (83 %). Ages ranged from 27 to 66 with an average age of 42 years. The sample was highly educated, with five having attained a terminal degree (PhD or DNP). The participants described three themes of characteristics that contributed to the success of health coaches: personal characteristics, professional characteristics, and program characteristics.

Conclusions: These characteristics expand what is known about attributes that contribute to successful health coaching. Most can be trained or used in developing programs and interventions.

Practice Implications: Our findings suggest that many of the core skills of an effective health coach can be developed through individual training, program design, and peer support. Innate personal characteristics such as trustworthiness, integrity, and compassion are hard to influence but can be identified in the hiring process.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9877172PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.107592DOI Listing

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