Beyond advising and mentoring: Competencies for coaching in medical education

Coaching supports academic goals, professional development and wellbeing in medical education. Scant literature exists on training and assessing coaches and evaluating coaching programs. To begin filling this gap, we created a set of coach competencies for medical education using a modified Delphi approach.An expert team assembled, comprised of seven experts in the field of coaching. A modified Delphi approach was utilized to develop competencies.Fifteen competencies in five domains resulted: coaching process and structure, relational skills, coaching skills, coaching theories and models, and coach development.These competencies delineate essential features of a coach in medical education. Next steps include creating faculty development and assessment tools for coaching.