Effect of Physician Peer Coaching on Burnout in Hospital-Based Physicians: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

The prevalence of burnout symptoms among physicians is high, especially for acute care physicians. Physician burn out is a long-term stress reaction marked by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of sense of personal accomplishment. The healthcare environment, due to its demanding pace and emotional intensity, puts physicians at high risk for burnout.

Physician-Led Professional Coaching is a one-on-one intervention between a physician coach and an individual physician that is systematic, collaborative, future-focused, goal-oriented and is meant to help coaches attain valued professional or personal development. The trial will be conducted with 25 participants in an intervention cohort and 25 participants in a control. The intervention cohort will receive 6 individual coaching sessions over 6 months. Coaching sessions will use the CHEER acronym for conducting the coaching sessions: Celebrate, Hear, Executive coaching, Engage, and Recharge. The control group will be eligible for coaching sessions after the completing of the interventional arm. Physicians randomized to the control arm will be offered the same individualized coaching sessions as those that were in the intervention group. Te Maslach Burnout Inventory survey will be used to measure burnout and will be collected at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months. The physician coach will be blinded to all survey data as it is being collected.