Due to clinicians’ hectic schedules, some doctors and medical professionals struggle to balance their work and life, upgrade their skills, and find meaning and purpose.
If you feel burned out or stuck in your healthcare career, consider getting physician coaching sessions to help you achieve your goals.
Learn more about this opportunity and see if it will help you take your life and career to the next level.
Key Takeaways
- Physician coaching helps clinicians deal with professional and personal concerns, improve their expertise, reduce stress, and become their best selves.
- The perks of coaching include balancing career and life, improving relationships, developing soft skills, and managing finances.
- A physician coach may cost around $105 per hour, depending on their experience, speciality, and program duration.
- When looking for a coach, consider their certification, specialization, experience, suitability, availability, and price.
Table of Contents
What Is Physician Coaching?
Physician coaching involves a trained physician coach guiding another physician in their personal growth and professional development.
The process helps physicians eliminate negative thinking, change their mindset, and learn new habits through awareness, learning, skill building, and accountability.
Coaching differs from mentoring since it focuses on providing regular feedback to help the clinician figure out their path and reach their goal.
Meanwhile, mentorship involves an experienced professional providing holistic advice and wisdom. It also focuses on building a long-term relationship.
During the first call or session, the coach will brief the client on the content of the sessions, expectations, and schedules.
The coach and client will determine the number of sessions, but it’s recommended to hold at least three to six.
Common reasons for physicians and other healthcare providers to get coaching include experiencing burnout, the stress of managing a practice, transitioning to a leadership position or retiring.
What Does a Physician Coach Do?
Physician coaches are similar to career coaches, but they focus on the medical field’s specific challenges and culture.
The roles and responsibilities of a physician coach include:
- Helping you identify and address job and life challenges or stumbling blocks
- Asking questions to clarify your goal and vision
- Providing objective, strategic feedback
- Helping you stay aware and learn and practice new skills
- Encouraging you to move forward
- Being your accountability partner
Types of Physician Career Coaching
Although the list continues to grow, discover some types of physician coaching available for healthcare professionals.
- Physician Life Coaching
- Physician Burnout Coaching
- Peer Coaching
- Physician Leadership Coaching
- Executive Coaching for Doctors
- Business Coaching for Physician Entrepreneurs
- Medical Practice Business Coaching
- Onboarding Coaching
- Financial Coaching
- Career and Job Search Coaching
- Transition to Retirement Coaching
4 Reasons Why You Should Try Physician Coaching Services
Physician Coaching offers many benefits in one’s personal and professional life.
Here are some reasons why healthcare providers should invest in coaching services.
Learn to Achieve Work-Life Balance
A 2021 study found that 62.8% of physicians had at least one manifestation of burnout, which is higher than in previous years.
Due to the long work hours and heavy workload, many doctors experience physician burnout and have difficulty living a balanced life.
However, studies show that coaching can improve physician work-life balance.
A 2020 study conducted to improve primary care physicians’ work and personal well-being found that psychology-based coaching intervention helped decrease burnout and increase work engagement, job satisfaction, and psychological capital.
If you struggle to manage your personal and work life, consider entering physician coaching sessions to learn to manage your time, reduce stress and burnout, and remain resilient during life and career challenges.
Improve Relationships at Work and at Home
Physician wellness also includes social well-being. Working with a coach can help improve your communication abilities and emotional intelligence.
Knowing how to communicate well, express your emotions appropriately, and understand others can enhance your relationships, prevent misunderstandings, and resolve conflicts with patients, colleagues, family members, and others.
Good connections and strong social support also contribute to less stress, better behaviors, a boosted immune system, and potentially even a longer life.
Develop Important Soft Skills
If you’re aiming for or transitioning to physician leadership, consider tapping a coach for overall professional development.
Your coach can help you feel confident in your capabilities, improve your emotional intelligence, enhance your leadership skills, learn conflict management and negotiation, and more.
Overall, your coach can help address any concerns with your soft skills and mindset and shape you into a model physician-leader.
Manage Your Finances Well
Some physician coaches can also guide you in managing your finances.
Since many physicians have a debt or loan from medical school, some may have trouble knowing how to pay for it effectively, manage their finances, and save for their future.
You can also consult a financial or investment coach to help you grow your savings through lucrative investment opportunities.
Overall, your coach can help you manage your money, save for your financial goals, and protect your finances during employment and income changes.
How Much Does a Physician Coaching Program Cost?
According to ZipRecruiter, a physician coach earns an average of $105 per hour, which means hiring a coach can cost around this much per hour.
Meanwhile, a full coaching program can cost up to several thousand dollars.
The cost of working with a coach or entering a coaching program depends on several factors, including your professional role, your coach’s expertise and experience, and the duration or number of sessions.
During your initial consultation or inquiry, your coach will help you estimate the cost and duration of your sessions.
Some hospitals or clinics offer full or partial compensation for coaching, so check with your employer to see if they offer this benefit.
Tips for Finding the Right Physician Coach
What factors should you look for when choosing a coach? Take the following into consideration.
- Certification: Look for coaches with a certification. It shows they’re serious about their craft and trained to handle certain concerns and situations.
- Specialization: Coaches focus on and train on specific concerns. If you want to work on your burnout, get one that specializes in managing it. If a coach doesn’t specify their expertise, ask them about the types of concerns they handled previously.
- Experience: Besides expertise, consider the coach’s length and depth of experience. Ideally, you want someone who has been coaching for years and has worked with various clients with successful results. Experienced coaches usually already have the wisdom to effectively deal with certain situations and concerns.
- Suitability: It helps to find a coach with a common ground, like having the same gender, race, or personal background. However, this isn’t a requirement and depends on your individual preference. Ultimately, aim to find a compassionate coach with good communication skills.
- Availability: Naturally, choose a healthcare coach that can be available at your preferred time and schedule. Make sure the person can also commit to all your sessions and finish your program.
- Price: When considering the cost, factor in the coach’s skills, experience, achievements, suitability, and availability to see if the price is worth it. Remember that more expensive coaches may not be as good as those with cheaper rates.
Where to Find Physician Coaches
Consider getting a coach from the following associations and platforms.
Physicians Thrive
Physicians Thrive offers financial services and coaching to help clinicians manage their finances, grow their money, protect their savings, start their private practice, prepare for retirement, and more.
American Academy of Family Physicians
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the national association of family doctors, offers resources and tools to help physicians with their career planning.
You can also find and connect with physician career coaches on their platform.
American Medical Women’s Association
The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) offers coaching, leadership development, and other community engagement opportunities to advance women in medicine.
Their members include female physicians, residents, healthcare workers, medical students, pre-medical students, and supporters.
Should You Get Professional Coaching?
Becoming successful in medicine requires not only skills and experience but also a proper work-life balance and goal-setting.
You can achieve all these with the right physician coaching.
Whether or not you’re struggling with something at work or home, consider getting some form of coaching to enhance your life.
If you’re interested in receiving coaching, ask your employer for recommendations or find platforms that offer online consultations.
Also, consider investing in a financial coach to ensure you don’t waste every penny you earn.
Talk with a Financial Advisor specializing in physicians to learn how you can balance, manage, and maximize your finances.
