UCLA Study: Small Group Coaching Can Reduce Burnout Rates

Research recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that small group professional coaching can reduce physician burnout rates by up to 30%, suggesting that it is more effective than a more expensive, one-on-one coaching method.

The researchers at the UCLA Department for Medicine conducted a randomized, wait-list controlled trial with 79 UCLA attending internal medicine physicians for just over a year starting in March 2023. The intervention consisted of six one-hour coaching sessions, with one-third of the group receiving one-on-one coaching via Zoom while another third were coached in small groups consisting of three physicians and one coach. The final third acted as control group, receiving no coaching during the first few months of the trial, and subsequently received six, one-on-one coaching sessions.

The primary outcome the researchers measured was overall burnout. They also examined areas of work life such as workload, control rewards, community, fairness, and values; work engagement such as vigor, dedication, and absorption; self-efficacy, and social support. They measured each of these outcomes before and after the intervention and again six months afterward.

They found that small group intervention participants experienced a nearly 30% reduction in burnout rate. Participants in the one-on-one coaching experienced a 13.5% burnout rate reduction. By contrast, the control group experienced an 11% increase in burnout rates. Burnout remained stable among the small group participants and continued to fall in the one-on-one group six months after the initial intervention.

Coaching for the one-on-one sessions cost $1,000 per participant, compared with $400 for the small group coaching sessions.

Lead author on the study is Joshua Khalili, M.D., director of physician wellness in the UCLA Department of Medicine and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“Most current evidence related to professional coaching is related to individual coaching and its impact on reducing burnout,” Khalili said in a statement. “But individual coaching can be quite costly, which is a barrier to broad implementation This new, small-group model of professional coaching can make a significant impact in physician burnout and costs much less than the one-on-one model.”

The researchers are now providing coaching to physicians in the UCLA Department of Medicine and hope that this research encourages other healthcare institutions and organizations to implement professional coaching. “By improving physicians’ well-being, engagement, and sense of support, interventions like coaching can enhance the quality of care patients receive, making this a public health priority, not just a workplace issue,” Khalili said.

The UCLA Department of Medicine funded the study.