How coaching can benefit patient care and your nursing team
To provide high-quality care and maintain mental well-being, nurses need to feel heard and supported at work, one way of providing that support is through coaching. Via good coaching, nursing managers can help team members with their personal and professional development, and help provide time and space to improve nursing care
Through coaching, nursing managers can help nurses in their development and boost mental well-being and patient care, benefitting individuals and the wider team
When times are tough and resilience is running low, we all need tools and coping mechanisms to help us through.
This is just as important in the workplace as it is in our personal lives, and particularly when working in a caring profession that comes with its own unique challenges (short-staffing, periods of intense demand, overcrowding and underfunding, to name just a few).
Nurses need to feel heard and supported at work so that they can maintain their own mental well-being and provide high-quality care to patients. One way of providing this support is through coaching.
Coaching helps to unlock an individual’s potential
Coaching is a process that nurse leaders can use to help team members with their personal and professional development.
‘Coaching can be a powerful tool and, speaking from personal experience, it works’
It supports another person’s understanding, learning, behaviour and progress through one-to-one sessions which encourage the coachee to think about what they want to achieve in life/work, and to set goals.
The coach’s role is to skilfully question in a structured conversation and explore an individual’s potential.
Coaching can be a powerful tool and, speaking from personal experience, it works.
I had a course of coaching sessions at a time I felt stuck and directionless in many aspects of my life, including my career.
I was sceptical, initially, but found it to be an incredibly beneficial professional experience, which had the knock-on effect of having a positive impact on my personal life.
Having time and space to reflect on patient care is essential for nurses
Caroline Scates looks at how coaching techniques and skills might assist nurse leaders in her CPD article Coaching members of the healthcare team to improve care provision.
She postulates that having the time and space to reflect and consider how to improve patient care is essential for nurses.
Coaching can offer that opportunity by providing nurses with the protected time and headspace required to think, benefiting them and the wider team.
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