Research Hit: The Surprising Effectiveness of Coaching in Reducing Burnout Symptoms

A pilot program that successfully reduced burnout among female medical residents has shown even greater results on a national level in the USA.

You are a coach so is this really surprising?

As a coach I have seen how effective coaching can be in multiple areas in life. But this is surprising for numerous reasons.

Firstly, the larger follow up study was more effective than the initial pilot study.

Secondly, the effectiveness is in reducing signs of burnout which some may believe are harder to impact with coaching (not me though).

Thirdly, because of how the intervention was carried out with virtual and filmed group sessions - so not just one-on-one which may would think has the potential to be more effective.

Oh wow! So how was this carried out then?

Well, first off let’s understand the population group. This was targeted at female medical residents. As I’m sure most of us are aware the medical professions are at high risk of burnout for multiple reasons: workload, responsibility, long and changing working hours, high regulatory hurdles, etc. Women more so for additional reasons such as discrimination in the workplace.

The pilot programme in 2021 had positive outcomes with improved ratings by participants on imposter syndrome and personal compassion. The expansion of this programme by Adrienne Mann et al. University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus was conducted in 26 institutions across 19 states with a total of 1017 participants.

That’s an impressive study size - what were the results then?