Cultivating Coaching Excellence: Cementing Skills through Practice and Feedback with a Realistic OSTE

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Abstract
As competency-based medical education (CBME) expands, faculty are increasingly expected to coach learners in goal setting, reflection, and self-directed learning. This adjustment from previous educational styles is a necessary change to enhance learner engagement and subject retention, however, scalable and standardized approaches to developing faculty coaching skills remain limited. Simulation-based strategies, such as the Objective Structured Teaching Encounter (OSTE), offer opportunities for deliberate practice and feedback, yet their application to faculty coaching development is underexplored. This study describes the design, implementation, and early outcomes of a four-case OSTE developed to prepare faculty for longitudinal academic coaching roles in undergraduate medical education (UME). Fifty-three faculty members across three cohorts participated in a four-hour OSTE consisting of standardized student encounters aligned with required coaching sessions in the curriculum. Each faculty member completed one coaching encounter after which they received structured feedback from standardized students, peers, and master coaches and these faculty observed three other encounters and provided their own feedback following the observations. Data sources included immediate written feedback forms, follow-up surveys, and observation checklists assessing five foundational coaching behaviors; descriptive statistics and trend review of comments were used to summarize findings. Faculty frequently demonstrated key coaching behaviors, including listening without interruption (90.3%) and eliciting student goals (77.4%). Participants reported increased confidence and preparedness for coaching, with 83.8% agreeing the simulation aided their preparation and 78.4% finding the cases realistic. Qualitative comments reflected recurring themes of hands-on practice, realism of standardized scenarios, and increased comfort applying coaching skills. The OSTE provided a feasible, no cost, and psychologically safe method for practicing foundational coaching skills before faculty engaged in longitudinal coaching relationships. This study introduces a novel application of simulation-based education to develop academic coaches and highlights OSTEs as a practical strategy to support coaching readiness within CBME-aligned UME programs.

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