What is Clinical Health Coaching?
Clinical health coaching is, first and foremost, a very particular set of skills and attitudes enabling a wide range of health care professionals to partner with patients to achieve health outcomes that matter. Health professionals, such as nurses, physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists, mental health therapists, personal trainers and others can profit as individuals and interprofessional teams to move patient behaviors to good health ends.
Trained clinical health coaches transform the conversation between provider and patient and function as behavior change specialists. Additionally, they transform the care processes aligning best practice care with patient resources. In this role they function as a care management facilitator. They recognize the patient as capable, and as the greatest untapped resource in healthcare. They are keenly aware that competent self-care and self-management by patients is a highly valued intention of the care process.
Who can be a Clinical Health Coach?
Clinical health coaching is a particular set of skills as described above. It is not limited to any one healthcare profession. However, participants trained as a Clinical Health Coaches achieve the most satisfaction from their training when they are working in a clinical environment where they are actively engaging patients with chronic conditions. This makes the Clinical Health Coach particularly valuable to organizations committed to building and maintaining high functioning Patient Centered Medical Homes as well as organizations building vital futures around Accountable Care Organization strategies.
How does the Clinical Health Coach make a difference in your organization? What outcomes may be achieved utilizing Health Coaches?
This is a new and emerging field. The utilization of health coaches has not been well studied. The application of the role often varies from one organization to another. However, there are many published articles and case studies that have documented the value of health coaches, when used within specific models of care.
Because the Clinical Health Coach Training is used by a wide variety of healthcare organizations and healthcare professionals, the curriculum is focused more on versatile skills development than a prescriptive model of care.
The Clinical Health Coach curriculum is grounded in best practice and researched material, with just enough innovation to keep current with new models of coaching and care management. Content material is updated as often as needed, as this is a quickly changing healthcare environment.
We are confident that the graduate(s) of our clinical health coaching programs can assist organizations to meet key data benchmarks, quality measures and improve patient satisfaction. The curriculum highlights strategies to achieve these goals. Necessary ingredients in building a successful health coach role/program include:
- Determining the appropriate patients to be followed by a health coach (population-based risk stratification) and utilizing informatics for ongoing monitoring of care (patient registries).
- Building a healthcare team, in which the health coach may become a team leader or change agent for proactive care management
- Measuring the value of the health coach role through regular clinical population data analysis (clinical measures)
- Providing the health coach with physical space, time and resources to interact with patients on a regular basis.
- Measuring the value of the health coach through patient-centered feedback, such as patient satisfaction surveys.
Why would I benefit from taking this program?
Virtually all healthcare professionals that are directly engaged with patients would benefit from the program. The primary audience for the Clinical Health Coach training is the individual or organization that is looking to deliver more engaged and impactful care to their patients burdened with chronic disease.
Previous participants have included Physicians, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Exercise Physiologists, Dieticians, Respiratory Care Practitioners, Diabetes Educators, Certified Medical Assistants, Care Coordinators, Case Managers, Pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals who work in medical settings that support patients with chronic conditions.
Appropriate settings may include primary care and specialty care clinics, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs, case management services, “Chronic Illness Management” departments, Heart Failure programs, Diabetes Education programs, Care Transitions programs, Home Health/Visiting Nurse Service agencies, Pharmacies, Registered Dietitian consultants, medical fitness professionals, and health coach consultants.
How would an ACO, PHO, or other Healthcare System benefit from training teams and diverse staff members as Clinical Health Coaches?
The role of health coach fits into a team approach to chronic care management. The more the entire team understands and practices clinical health coaching, the higher the potential for the practice/organization to be delivering true patient-centered care that results in improved health outcomes. The “coach approach” to patient engagement and activation can be learned by all team members to build a culture of patient care in any setting. There has been affirmation of value and a high demand from Patient Centered Medical Homes and Accountable Care Organizations for training their front line staff as Clinical Health Coaches.
Are there any minimal background or licensure requirements for healthcare professionals to enroll in our Clinical Health Coach training program?
We recommend this training for professionals who are working in clinical settings, but there is no minimum scope of practice or licensure required.
What is included in the course curriculum?
The Clinical Health Coach training online is designed for healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations that seek to improve the health outcomes of their patients by actively engaging them in self-management support and providing true patient-centered care.
The learning features include:
- Emphasis in patient engagement and activation strategies through a health coaching approach.
- Exploration of a wide variety of health coaching skills that can be learned and effectively used by anyone on the healthcare team that results in a patient-centric environment.
- Clinical assessments, tools and documents that support the guided care process and patient selected goals for behavior change, especially for those with chronic conditions.
- Population health strategies to identify, stratify, select interventions, track and measure outcomes for an entire panel of patients.
- Effective healthcare communications to improve health literacy.
The design and opportunity features include:
- Convenience.
- Self-paced, can review materials as often as needed.
- Reduced time away from the work environment.
- Coaching performance orientation.
- Live telephonic practice and feedback sessions.
- Scalable to entire healthcare teams.
A complete listing of learning objectives and a detailed course outline will be available upon registration for the training.
How much time is required to complete the online training?
The course is 24 hours of online-based training materials plus live telephonic workshops and a skills performance evaluation. Because the program is self-paced, the student can go review and replay individual sessions as often as needed.
- The training program is set up in 6 modules and the participant will receive new modules once they have completed the one they are working on.
- Each registrant will be invited to participate in live or recorded telephonic health coaching skills practice calls. These calls are arranged on different days and times to provide flexibility, but they are also recorded for on-demand viewing.
- Participants will have 1 year to complete the coursework and competency evaluation before the license expires, although healthcare organizations may require the registrant to complete it much quicker.
What equipment will I need to participate?
Hardware:
The learning portal for training is web based and accessible from a variety of devices that can access the web.
System:
- Mac or PC operating system
- Stable internet connection (broadband recommended)
- Updated version of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari web browser
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
Are there Continuing Education Credits offered?
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of Interstate Postgraduate Medical Association (IPMA) and Iowa Chronic Care Consortium. IPMA is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Interstate Postgraduate Medical Association designates this enduring material for a maximum of 26.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
IPMA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, provider number 6971, for 26.0 contact hours. Each person should retain this certificate for four years after the course has been completed.
Does this program offer a Certification?
Included as part of your registration fee, is an opportunity to earn a Certificate of Competency as a Clinical Health Coach®.
What is the difference between a Certification and a Certificate of Competency as a health coach?
- Several organizations offer certifications in health coaching, but there is no one standardized, credentialed certification in the field of clinical health coaching. The certifications may or may not match the skills needed within an organization’s clinical environment.
- ICCC’s Certificate of Competency represents a validation of knowledge and skills as a health coach operating in a clinical environment. This means, participants must demonstrate a basic proficiency of population-based health coaching in a clinical setting (which differs from health coaching in a wellness setting).
- ICCC’s Certificate of Competency aligns with the type of skills validation that is cited by the Institute of Medicine as a standard for proficiency in nursing. The CHC curriculum and Competency Certificate directly addresses the knowledge and skills required for today’s emerging healthcare environment.
What are the steps to earning a Certificate of Competency as a Clinical Health Coach®?
- Complete all online learning modules and telephonic coaching calls.
- Take an online written exam and receive a passing score of at least 70%.
- Schedule and receive a passing score on a performance-based coaching evaluation.
Can I take the performance evaluation without finishing the learning modules?
No, the participant must participate fully in the online curriculum before becoming eligible for the performance evaluation. The Certificate of Competency is earned after passing both the written exam and the performance evaluation. The performance evaluation criteria are built from the learning modules.
How much does the program cost?
The value for the Clinical Health Coach training is $2,500 to $4,000 compared to other comparable programs. The price of the online course, CMEs/CEUs, and Certificate of Competency is only $988.00. There are no other costs, and the registration fee includes the option to earn the valuable Certificate of Competency as a Clinical Health Coach.
Is there a discounted rate for groups?
We will offer several levels of group participation discounts. The Clinical Health Coach training has be particularly valuable for organizations that wish to train a significant workforce in health coaching and care management strategies.
How do I register?
Individuals and organizations can safely register online at www.clinicalhealthcoach.com
How do I find out more information?
You can learn more both at www.clinicalhealthcoach.com
Who is the sponsoring organization, the Iowa Chronic Care Consortium?
The Iowa Chronic Care Consortium (ICCC) was created 10 years ago as a voluntary not for profit collaboration of public, private, academic and government organizations. Its purpose was then, and is now, to develop capacity in other organizations to effectively manage the most prevalent chronic diseases affecting people and to improve the health and productivity of individuals through access to patient centered proactive strategies for chronic condition management where they live and work.
Because of its success and learnings in chronic disease management, ICCC has expanded its role to provide trainings, consultation and evaluation services for organizations who wish to utilize a population health approach to improve population health outcomes. ICCC staff benefit from guidance by a board of directors representing health systems, providers, health plans, business, health policy, unions and consumers.