1. Coaching Health & Care Professionals
Coaching GPs and Practice Managers to improve effectiveness
The Challenge
Health and social care are facing unprecedented demands. Across the world, healthcare systems are seeking solutions to deliver improved outcomes with reduced resources. The Five Year Forward View by the NHS sets out a vision for the future focused on new models of care, with an emphasis on more integration and place-based working. Demands on primary care have never been greater, yet General Practitioners (GPs) and Practice Managers (PMs) are at the heart of ‘place’ and essential in creating a sustainable health and social care system. The General Practice Forward View recognises the challenges and identifies ambitious plans to initiate significant improvements.
In order for them to be part of the solution to the current challenges, GPs need to be able to find space to think, develop resilience and manage themselves, their practice staff and their current working situations. To enable this, we were commissioned to deliver a programme offering GPs the opportunity to receive two confidential one-to-one coaching sessions with a professional coach. Coaching was identified as a means to offer support that is forward-looking, action-orientated, positive and personal. The aim of the programme was to provide time and space to think in a way that supported them to make positive changes and, not only to survive the current environment, but to flourish and enable greater levels of retention.
How it worked
After the Health & Care Coaching programme was agreed, there was a series of six simple steps required to enable coaching to take place:
What we did
- Move from a feeling of being stuck with no options or choice to feeling empowered
- Clarify areas of influence and concern, accepting what they can’t change and work with what they can
- Unlock motivation – aligning their intellect and energy to what they are passionate about
- Build confidence to want to engage with and make changes, to make better decisions for themselves, their practice and patients
- Facilitate quality time to think and have their mindsets and perceptions challenged
- Build resilience so that they can be, think, diagnose and treat well, and work with the wider system
We have a lot of experience coaching Health & Care Professionals
talented, highly-qualified & experienced professional coaches
Health & Care professionals coached over 5 years
coaching sessions delivered with Health & Care professionals
The Results
The Numbers
After just 2 coaching sessions, GPs and PMs made significant improvements:
%
reported a positive impact of coaching on themselves
%
were able to achieve a better work-life balance
%
improved personal effectiveness and efficiency
%
Had a reduction in their levels of stress and anxiety
%
improved the effectiveness of their communication
%
reduction in likelihood of leaving General Practice
What some of the GPs and PMs said
This was my first introduction to coaching and something I would recommend and be keen to do more of.
The first session was a real eye opener and helped me identify some key areas to improve, the second session helped me realise how I had taken on board what we had identified, applied them and improved myself, and a plan going forward.
It was also very insightful to look at the theory and that helped me put things into place.