From the sidelines: coaching as a nurse practitioner strategy for improving health outcomes.

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to explore coaching as a nurse practitioner (NP) strategy for improving patient health outcomes and to lay a foundation for validating coaching benefits.

DATA SOURCES: Review of coaching literature in psychology, sports, business, and nursing.

CONCLUSIONS: Coaching has been reported as successful in psychology, sports, business, and more recently nursing, for assisting people to achieve goals that are important to them. Coaching may be very effective in encouraging, inspiring, and empowering patients to reach their maximum health potential, particularly if lifestyle change is required; however, coaching research is in its early stages. Coaching is not well defined, so claims of coaching benefits must be viewed cautiously. Coaching is an expected NP role competency, but it is not well explicated in the literature. Defining the concept of coaching from multidisciplinary consensus, expanding knowledge of the coaching process, and consciously implementing coaching communication in the NP/patient primary care encounter may result in measurable outcomes that demonstrate coaching effectiveness.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Coaching fits well with the holistic, collaborative approach to patient care which NPs value. Coaching provides an opportunity to shift traditional thinking about patient/provider relationships and how to motivate patients toward behavior change. The challenge for NPs is to take the time to learn the coaching process, employ coaching communication strategies in the primary care encounter, and engage in research that measures coaching effectiveness.