Blog - Coaching for Doctors

November 28, 2024 7:00 am

Reflecting on the research and practice of coaching doctors

by Sharee Johnson

Academic Research seeks evidence by asking very specific questions that reduce the variables in a situation. In order to get at specific evidence, we can begin with a general enquiry like- Does coaching help doctors improve their performance? Does coaching reduce doctor burnout? And gradually we can think our way to something specific that we can […]

October 30, 2024 11:07 am

It’s the Combination of Trust and Tension that Creates Value in Coaching.

by Sharee Johnson

The process of coaching is a delicate balance between trust and tension. It is not the same as other conversations and it is not meant to be. Coaching relies on a trusting relationship so the Coachee can get to the core of the issue, get under the waterline. And the Coach has been given permission […]

October 1, 2024 11:00 am

The Doctor Cannot Fix Everything, believing they can limits, hurts, us all

by Sharee Johnson

The Doctor Cannot Fix Everything, believing they can limits, hurts, us all Mostly doctors are used to being the brightest star in the sky. I mean that with absolute admiration, there is no ‘tone’ when I say that. Since their inception most medical schools have selected doctors primarily for their academic smarts in STEM. When […]

August 28, 2024 12:01 pm

To be a patient is to be rendered vulnerable.

by Sharee Johnson

To be To be a patient is to be rendered vulnerable.The trust required to give consent to anaesthesia, surgery, pharmacological treatment on someone’s, a stranger’s, advice might be an act of desperationBlind faith… To be a medical student is to live up to expectation.The persistent commitment to academic learning, to sacrificing a social life, to […]

July 26, 2024 9:45 am

Prevention is so much better than a cure

by Sharee Johnson

Prevention is so much better than a cure every day of the week. Proactive action can help you be well, no matter where you work or what you do. Including working in healthcare. Healthcare workers have so much opportunity to shift the focus to prevention, to generate more health and wellbeing in our communities. When […]

June 25, 2024 2:17 pm

Retreat fosters a tender heart and a stable mind.

by Sharee Johnson

What a tender act it is to be on retreat. To tend to one’s self gently…. What just happened when you read that first sentence, that word tender? What belief did you automatically invoke without even trying, as truth? To tend to something means to pay attention to it and take action to care for […]

May 21, 2024 2:07 pm

Self improvement creates wellbeing

by Sharee Johnson

There is a tension between accepting yourself as you are and the notion of self improvement. As high achievers, doctors often describe themselves as life long learners. Some even seem addicted to academic achievement, but is this the same as self improvement, or something else? The language of self improvement is out of vogue. Now […]

April 23, 2024 10:36 am

Leading a Hospital Unit Effectively

by Sharee Johnson

Leading and creating a hospital unit workplace culture, where people want to be. A provocation for generative thinking. Shanafelt et. al. have demonstrated and concluded that creating a wellbeing culture in healthcare needs to happen at the local unit level.1 Professors Amy Edmondson and Don Berwick delivered a keynote together last week at the IHI […]

March 28, 2024 8:30 am

Doctors celebrate the value of having a Professional Coach

by Sharee Johnson

Being in a room where doctors are openly celebrating the value of having a professional coach is a novel experience for me. We had the pleasure in March of attending the Creative Careers in Medicine Conference. A gathering of medical creatives and curiosos. The speakers were inspiring and really showcased a breadth and depth of […]

February 28, 2024 9:36 pm

Is there an archetypal doctor mindset?

by Sharee Johnson

Your mindset has an impact on your experience and your results, because it affects what you notice. In a continuous feedback loop, what you notice can get narrower and narrower, if you live in the red zone of fight-flight, sympathetic dominance as many doctors do. In this mindset, a stressed state, your body produces cortisol, […]

November 20, 2023 12:49 pm

Personal Agency is Key to Individual Wellbeing and to Organisational Change

by Sharee Johnson

According to the Stanford WellMD model of healthcare, healthcare worker well being1 is achieved from 20% personal resilience and 80% organisational responsibility (changing systems and structures in the workplace). The Stanford research is impressive and guides a great deal of our work. It’s impact in helping healthcare organisations to get serious about their responsibilities to […]

September 30, 2023 4:28 pm

Medicine is an inexact science.

by Sharee Johnson

Researchers and clinicians work hard to bring evidence to the table, to notice and measure patterns, to share information in the service of everyone. And medicine has done an extraordinary job of this. For example: 🌱Average global life expectancy has more than doubled 🌱Child mortality and maternal mortality rates are lower 🌱We are […]