Frequently Asked Questions

What is Clinical Health Coaching?

Clinical health coaching is a specialized set of skills and attitudes that empowers healthcare professionals to partner with patients in achieving meaningful health outcomes. This approach benefits a wide range of professionals, including nurses, physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists, mental health therapists, personal trainers, and others. By adopting clinical health coaching, individuals and interprofessional teams can effectively guide patients toward positive behavior changes and improved health.

Trained clinical health coaches revolutionize the provider-patient interaction by serving as behavior change specialists. They enhance care processes by integrating best practices with available patient resources, fulfilling the critical role of care management facilitators. These professionals view patients as capable and recognize them as the most underutilized resource in healthcare. They emphasize the importance of self-care and self-management, understanding that empowering patients to take an active role in their health is fundamental to successful care outcomes.

Who can be a Clinical Health Coach^®?

Clinical health coaching encompasses a specialized set of skills designed to empower healthcare professionals to engage patients effectively, especially those with chronic conditions. While this role is not limited to any one healthcare profession, individuals who thrive as Clinical Health Coaches typically work in clinical environments where patient engagement is a core focus.

Those trained as Clinical Health Coaches® find the greatest satisfaction when they can apply their skills to support patients in managing their health, improving outcomes, and fostering sustainable lifestyle changes. This makes Clinical Health Coaches invaluable to organizations committed to creating and maintaining high-functioning Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) and advancing strategies for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). These roles are ideal for individuals passionate about improving patient care and supporting team-based, value-driven healthcare models.

How does the Clinical Health Coach^® make a difference in your organization? What outcomes may be achieved utilizing Health Coaches?

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.

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.
• Scalable to entire healthcare teams.

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
  

Does this program offer a Certification?

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.
• Our 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).
• Our 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 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.
• 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.

Where do I find more information about the training program?