Podcast 03 – Clinical Health Coaching in Primary Care

Summary

Motivating and assisting people to change their health behavior is a major challenge in primary care settings. It has been suggested 50% of patients leave office visits without understanding what advice their physician gave, and fewer still how to effectively implement recommended health behavior changes. In this respect, greater knowledge and action concerning health behavior change within primary care is essential to improve health outcomes. Clinical health coaching is an Evidence-Based approach that facilitates healthy, sustainable behavior change and is a valuable tool for primary care. The primary function of clinical health coach is to assist patients to gain knowledge, skills, and confidence to self-manage their health conditions. Clinical health coaching techniques enable efficient use of consultation time by focusing on what patients can actively do to improve their health. Coaches promote patients’ responsibility for their own health management. Consultations can be face-to-face, telephone- or video-based or within a group setting. Clinical health coaching included individual and group coaching visits as well as coaching for specific clinical pathways (cancer, diabetes, etc). The addition of a clinical health coach to the primary care team allows for more comprehensive primary care in partnership with the patient consistent with agreed upon goals of care. The presentation will provide context for how the clinical health coaching program was developed at the University of Delaware based, in part, on perceived need in the primary care community. Case examples of what clinical health coaching looks like in applied health settings, academic training and professional development of clinical health coaches, and a discussion of how clinical health coaching could be further integrated within existing Integrated Care models.