Article
What’s so difficult about becoming a health coach in primary care? A process evaluation of an approach to coach patients
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Authors
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S. Lenzen
- Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Heerlen, Niederlande; University Maastricht, Department of Family Medicine, Maastricht, Niederlande
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L. van Bokhoven
- University Maastricht, Department of Family Medicine, Maastricht, Niederlande
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R. Daniels
- Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Heerlen, Niederlande
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T. van der Weijden
- University Maastricht, Department of Family Medicine, Maastricht, Niederlande
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S. Beurskens
- Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Heerlen, Niederlande; University Maastricht, Department of Family Medicine, Maastricht, Niederlande
| Published: | September 5, 2017 |
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Outline
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Background: Professionals in family medicine are increasingly required to act as coaches to enhance their chronically ill patients’ self-management. We developed an approach aiming to support practice nurses working in family medicine in the Netherlands to coach patients in goal setting and action planning.
Questions: How is the approach implemented and experienced by practice nurses and patients? How do practice nurse describe their learning processes?
Content: A process evaluation was conducted using mixed methods. Fifteen practice nurses participated in two training groups (n=9 and n=6, respectively). Interviews with professionals (n=15) and patients (n=10) plus a focus group with professionals (n=9) were conducted. Moreover, professionals filled in a questionnaire about their way of working before, during and after the training. They were also asked to deliver audiotapes of their consultations (n=13). Although the approach was experienced as valuable for having in-depth conversations and working more tailored, professionals struggled to implement it. Professionals’ skills and attitudes, as well as contextual factors, such as a lack of support from family physicians, were found to have hampered the implementation. This study shows the complexity of becoming a health coach. Our results indicate that becoming a health coach probably requires more than training the individual professional. It might be worthwhile to focus on organizational learning, aiming to increase primary care organizations’ capacities to learn and change routinized ways of working collaboratively.
