Efficacy of a coaching psychology-based intervention for public health nurses

Abstract

Background: Public health nurses (PHNs) play a pivotal role in community health and welfare where high quality professional services are required. In order to promote healthy behaviour of service users, PHNs need to recognise users’ individual differences and uncover their needs. Further, PHNs must exhibit communication skills to coordinate collaboration with all parties involved. Recently, application of coaching psychology to human resource development has attracted attention. This study evaluated the efficacy of a coaching psychology-based intervention to enhance PHNs’ coaching attitudes and skills. Methods: Sixteen PHNs in a regional city in Japan participated in three two-hour exercise-oriented coaching sessions. The intervention consisted of exercises for listening, questioning to elicit coachee’s potential, goal-setting, and giving recognition. Current level of practice and self-efficacy in coaching attitudes and skills, and social and emotional control skills were measured at baseline and post-intervention. Findings: Ten participants completed the pre- and post-intervention survey. Results demonstrated that the scores of all five subscales of self-efficacy in coaching attitudes and skills significantly increased at post-intervention (p<.05). However, overall and the ‘personal strength use’ subscale scores of social and emotional control skills only showed a tendency towards statistical significance (p<.10). Discussion: This brief intervention may have efficacy in enhancing coaching attitudes and skills whereas it appears to be insufficient to improve communication skills. Further research should examine the intervention content and continuous evaluation of intervention effectiveness. Particular consideration needs to be given to designing a brief intervention that helps PHNs pressed for time effectively acquire coaching skills.